Biodegradation, What is it, and how do we use it?

Biodegradation is the chemical dissolution of materials by bacteria or other biological means. Although often conflated, biodegradable is distinct in meaning fromcompostable. While biodegradable simply means to be consumed by microorganisms and return to compounds found in nature, "compostable" makes the specific demand that the object break down in a compost pile. The term is often used in relation to ecology, waste management, biomedicine, and the natural environment (bioremediation) and is now commonly associated with environmentally friendly products that are capable of decomposing back into natural elements. Organic material can be degraded aerobically with oxygen, or anaerobically, without oxygen.Biosurfactant, an extracellular surfactant secreted by microorganisms, enhances the biodegradation process.

Biodegradable matter is generally organic material such as plant and animal matter and other substances originating from living organisms, or artificial materials that are similar enough to plant and animal matter to be put to use by microorganisms.

Biodegradable plastic: What you need to know

Biodegradable plastic has been touted as an eco-friendly solution, but does it live up to its reputation?

Over 31 million tons of plastic waste is produced each year, of which just 8% is recycled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Biodegradable plastic made from materials ranging from bacteria to orange peels has been touted as a solution to the global plastic-waste problem and a way to lessen our impact on the environment. However, a closer examination reveals that biodegradable plastic may not live up to its eco-friendly image.

 

Biodegradable plastic was once a classic greenwashing scheme that often tricked consumers into purchasing products that were not, in fact, biodegradable. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cracked down on these dubious claims and now defines what can and cannot be marketed as biodegradable plastic.

 

To qualify as biodegradable, a material must be scientifically proven to break down completely and return to nature within a short time, the FTC says. Don’t be fooled, though: Not all biodegradable plastic is made from bio-based products like plants and food waste; some is derived from synthetic polyesters and other non-bio-based feedstock.

 

Is it really eco-friendly?

But even plastic certified as biodegradable may not be as environmentally friendly as it appears. In fact, according to a recent study released by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, biodegradable plastic offers almost no environmental advantage over traditional plastic.

 

Why? Unless plastic is composted or recycled, it ends up in landfills, which are designed to be kept dry and air-tight conditions that actually inhibit biodegradation. According to the Canada-based Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC), even though more than two-thirds of the garbage that goes into landfills may be purported to be biodegradable, little change occurs once it gets there.

 

“Nothing has as popular an image as biodegradability in landfills unfortunately, though, it just doesn’t happen,” says Dr. William Rathje, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona and author of the book “Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage.”

 

According to Rathje, if plastic were able to degrade in landfills, the environmental impact would be even worse. When biodegradable plastic breaks down in landfills, he explains in his book, it releases two greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, exacerbating climate change. Moreover, it could contribute to unstable sub-soil conditions and storm-water pollution.

 

There are also concerns about how biodegradable plastic is produced. For instance, much of the feedstock used to create biodegradable plastic comes from corn and other plants that have been treated with fertilizers and/or been genetically modified, the Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative notes.

 

What you can do

If biodegradable plastic is not really degradable after all, then what can you do to reduce your plastic footprint? The good news is that biodegradable plastic will degrade if composted properly. The Biodegradable Products Institute maintains a list of productsthat have been independently verified as compostable.

 

If composting is not your thing, recycling and reusing are also generally sustainable options. Another good practice is to reduce your plastic use overall, the EPIC recommends. Less plastic is better than biodegradable plastic, so make smart decisions.

Biofuels!!!! A new controversy.

What are Biofuels?

Biofuels are liquid fuels which have been derived from other materials such as waste plant and animal matter. There are two main types of biofuels – bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is used as a replacement for gasoline and biodiesel is used as a replacement for diesel. Biofuels represent an immense growth area around the world and have an important role to play in displacing the types of fuels the world has used in the past. Why have Biofuels? Biofuels are important for a number of reasons. Transport is dependent on finite fossil fuels such as oil and petroleum for its energy needs so it is important that we move towards more renewable and sustainable fuels. Added to this, transport is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases and biofuels can significantly reduce transport’s carbon footprint. Finally, it is important that Australia have domestic energy security. Australia currently imports half of its liquid fuel needs and that figure is rising. It is crucial that we have our own energy supplies so that we are not dependent upon the supply and pricing dictated by world markets. What is Peak Oil? Peak oil is the point in time at which oil production reaches its maximum annual rate after which time the annual production rate will start declining. Oil and its derivative products are a finite fossil fuel and eventually we will come to a point in time when total world oil production will have been reached. -Currently biofuel is produced from plants as well as microbes. The oils, carbohydrates or fats  generated by the microbes or plants are refined to produce biofuel. This is a green and renewable  energy that helps in conserving fossil-fuel usage. But a new research has led to a new discovery  of getting the microbes to produce fuel from the proteins instead of utilizing the protein for its own growth.  The research is being done at the premises of University of California in Los Angeles.

Focus
The focus of the experiment was to induce the microbes under the study to produce a specific kind of proteins rather than what they otherwise might be inclined to produce. This special protein can be refined in to biofuel. The task is to make the microbes produce only this kind of protein rather than utilizing it for their own growth and growth related activities as they otherwise do.

Different from prior practice
This kind of biofuel production is different from the traditional behavior of microbes where they use the protein only for growth. This is like tricking the microbes to deviate from that and produce fats or material that can be converted to biofuel. In the words of UCLA postdoctoral student and lead researcher, Yi-xin Huo -”We have to completely redirect the protein utilization system, which is one of the most highly-regulated systems in the cell.”

First attempt at protein utilization
This has been claimed as the first ever attempt to use the proteins as a source for generating energy. Until now the biofuel-producing algae has not made use of the protein like a carbon supply for biofuel. It was only used for growth. But now the scientists have tampered with usual nitrogen metabolism process and induced biorefining process and altered the metabolizing of nitrogen at the cellular level.

A fringe benefit
By this process, they are letting the cells to retain the nitrogen and take out just the ammonia. Once done with the biofuel production, the residue is a better kind of fertilizer thanks to the low nitrogen levels. This in turn will lessen any greenhouse emissions that happen during the fertilizer production. The new process will reprocess the nitrogen back and will help in maintaining a nitrogen neutral state and less harmful emissions during fertilizer production.

Future plans
The Nature Biotechnology Sunday issue has published the team’s findings. The team hopes that their findings will rewrite biofuel production by inundating the field with protein eating microbes which will generate fats and substances that can be converted into biofuel. The microbes will feed on proteins that are not fit for animal consumption and keep producing special proteins for biofuel conversion and later can become a better type if fertilizer with less nitrogen and nil harmful greenhouse emissions.

alternativeenergy.com

Website Keeps Endangered Frogs Alive Online

Aug 26, 2012

A website devoted to amphibian discovery has just recorded its 3000th new species, an achievement that belies the crisis facing frogs, salamanders and other amphibians around the world. 

An Introduction to evolution

An introduction to evolution

	Leaves on trees change color and fall over several weeks.		Mountain ranges erode over millions of years.
	A genealogy illustrates change with inheritance over a small number of years.		Over a large number of years, evolution produces tremendous diversity in forms of life.

The definition
Biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations). Evolution helps us to understand the history of life.

The explanation
Biological evolution is not simply a matter of change over time. Lots of things change over time: trees lose their leaves, mountain ranges rise and erode, but they aren't examples of biological evolution because they don't involve descent through genetic inheritance.

The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother.

Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.

The history of life: looking at the patterns

The central ideas of evolution are that life has a history — it has changed over time — and that different species share common ancestors.
Here, you can explore how evolutionary change and evolutionary relationships are represented in "family trees," how these trees are constructed, and how this knowledge affects biological classification. You will also find a timeline of evolutionary history and information on some specific events in the history of life: human evolution and the origin of life.

The family tree The process of evolution produces a pattern of relationships between species. As lineages evolve and split and modifications are inherited, their evolutionary paths diverge. This produces a branching pattern of evolutionary relationships. By studying inherited species' characteristics and other historical evidence, we can reconstruct evolutionary relationships and represent them on a "family tree," called a phylogeny. The phylogeny you see below represents the basic relationships that tie all life on Earth together. The three Domains This tree, like all phylogenetic trees, is a hypothesis about the relationships among organisms. It illustrates the idea that all of life is related and can be divided into three major clades, often referred to as the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota. We can zoom in on particular branches of the tree to explore the phylogeny of particular lineages, such as Animalia (outlined in red). And then we can zoom in even further to examine some of the major lineages within Vertebrata. Just click the button below. The tree is supported by many lines of evidence, but it is probably not flawless. Scientists constantly reevaluate hypotheses and compare them to new evidence. As scientists gather even more data, they may revise these particular hypotheses, rearranging some of the branches on the tree. For example, evidence discovered in the last 50 years suggests that birds are dinosaurs, which required adjustment to several "vertebrate twigs." http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

Will alternative fuels deplete global corn supplies?

If you've ever read Stephen King's­ short story "The Children of the Corn," or watched any of the eight (yes, eight!) horror films it spawned, then you know just how creepy a vast field of corn can be. The titular children in the story go on a murderous rampage, terrorizing and murdering hapless adults in the name of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows."

In the past, you may have laughed at the prospect of a corn-based ­entity spreading chaos and death. But amid current headlines about corn-based ethanol, global food shortages and the dietary effects of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), it's easy to feel a little apprehensive about living a life so increasingly dependent on those monotonous fields of swaying gold.

To break down the situation into the simplest terms, imagine a family of four living in the suburbs. Each week, they receive two commoditi­es: a t­ank ofgasoline and a crate of corn. In the mornings and afternoons, they use the gasoline to commute to work, go to school and run errands. The corn, on the other hand, winds up in most of their meals, be it in the form of tortillas, chowder or all the HFCS in little Jimmy's favorite candies and sodas. Eventually, they begin to receive less and less gasoline each month, but the supply of corn remains the same. Luckily, the corn can be processed into fuel for the automobile. Now this hypothetical family has to both fuel the car and feed themselves from the crate of corn. What are they to do?

In the late 17th century, England faced a similar situation. Timber was a vital commodity. The English used it to build ships for trade and defense, but firewood also was essential to cooking, heating and manufacturing. All the competing calls for wood caused a timber shortage, which led to a major fuel shift to coal.

In 2007, corn crops were responsible for 7.1 billon gallons (26.9 billion liters) of ethanol, according to an article by C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer that appeared in the Foreign Affairs journal. Studies suggest that by 2030, we could be squeezing out 33 billion gallons (125 billion liters) of ethanol. It takes more than 450 pounds (204 kilograms) of corn to fill a 25-gallon (94-liter) gas tank with ethanol -- that's enough calories to feed one person for an entire year [source: Runge]. Will we wind up taking corn out of hungry mouths in the process?

 

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While turning corn into gasoline may sound like a feat worthy of King Midas, not everyone thinks the ethanol industry has the golden touch.

N. Beckerman/Stone/Getty Images

Corn Today: Burning the Cob at Both Ends

There's a certain poetic irony to the idea of modern society breaking free from its dependence on dwindling fossil fuels only to starve millions due to ethanol production. After all, it falls right in line with our human habit of trading one vice for another. We quit drinking and just wind up buying more cigarettes. We beat our nicotine addictions only to rediscover junk food. It seems only natural that humanity might take an unsustainable thirst for petroleum and exchange it for an equally ravenous hunger for ethanol.

In 2008, rising food costs resulted in government tariffs, trade restrictions and social unrest in parts of the developing world. Food riots in Haiti even proved lethal. Food prices had tripled in the previous three years, and financial forecasts called for an additional 7 percent rise in 2009 [source: Fox News]. When it came to placing blame, no single scapegoat presented itself. Rather, a host of reasons for the spiraling costs of food presented themselves, including increased consumption, floods, droughts, pests, rising petroleum costs and a struggling global economy.

The most talked-about culprit, however, was the increased demand for biofuels such as ethanol. Ethanol is typically made from varieties of corn you'd never find on your dinner plate. These varieties of inedible corn are instead intended for use as livestock feed or the production of high fructose corn syrup. So ethanol eats up corn that could otherwise support the meat industry or, to a lesser extent, the nutrient-free world of candy and sodas. In addition, those same fields could be used to grow edible corn and other food crops.

In the United States, the demand for corn rose from 10.6 billion bushels in 2004 to an estimated 12.7 billion bushels in 2008 [source: Christopherson]. Over those four years, food demand slid from 7.6 to 6.7 billion bushels, while ethanol demand rose from 1.2 to 4 billion bushels [source: Christopherson]. As the United States produces between 60 and 70 percent of world corn exports, this kind of fluctuation can have quite an impact, such as influencing April 2008's record high price of $6.03 per bushel, up 30 percent from the beginning of the year [source: Gioia].

Those are some frightening figures, especially if you live in a country where a large­ percentage of your income goes to ensure your food supply. Some analysts, however, think change is just around the corner.

The Story of bottled Water 2010

The story of Citizens united Vs. F.E.S