Artificial DNA -The Future Storehouse of Human Knowledge

A million years from now, will our descendants still read works like Beowulf, Shakespearean plays, or even the Bible? Will they study any of the same mathematical concepts or scientific theories? If so, how will our data reach those future generations? It will likely be stored and continually transferred to the most advanced computer chip, right?

Wrong. Try bacteria.

Professor Masaru Tomita and his team of researchers at Keio University, Japan, have developed artificial DNA with encoded information that can be added to the genome of common bacteria. The four characters used in genetic coding (A’s, T’s, G’s and C’s) work much like digital data. If coded in a particular way, different character combinations can represent specific letters and symbols which can then be translated to produce music, text, video and other content.

But why use bacteria as a storage method in the first place? Because while books may crumble apart and computers may malfunction, bacterial information will last for millions of years -  as long, in fact,  as the species stays alive. Genetic coding is so massive that information can be stashed away somewhere in the gene without affecting an organism’s overall appearance and other traits.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/05/artifical_dna_t.html

New Energy Source? Structure Of Highly Efficient Light-harvesting Molecules In Green Bacteria Determined

The image shows a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, Montana, a site where bacteria containing chlorosomes can be found in the brightly colored mats. At the upper left is a thin-section electron micrograph of the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum, showing chlorosomes along the periphery of the cells as light-colored ovals. The next image is an electron micrograph of an isolated chlorosome from the bchQRU mutant, and the next image is a cryo-electron micrograph of the same. Finally, the last panel at the right shows a molecular model of the chlorophylls in the chlorosome. Individual chlorophyll molecules are illustrated in green and show their hydrophobic tails pointing outward. (Credit: Image by Donald Bryant, Penn State University, courtesy of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

An international team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy. The team’s results one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy to electrical energy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090504171947.htm

First Great Pacific Garbage Patch Clean-Up Effort to Begin

If you’ve spent much time reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you might have started wondering why we aren’t out there cleaning it up. Well, barely scratch the surface of that thought and you’ll see why. It’s a massive effort, and would require some massive carbon emissions from fossil fuel-powered boats and equipment to accomplish it. Plus, it’s expensive as all get out. But these issues are being waved aside by scientists who are launching an expedition to see just how possible it is to clean up the floating dump.

Great Pacific garbage Patch:

“Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” or “trash vortex” – essentially a floating expanse of waste and debris in the Pacific Ocean now covering an area twice the size of the continental U.S. Believed to hold almost 100m tons of flotsam, this vast “plastic soup” stretches 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan:

“The “soup” is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.”

From the Times: (Cleaning it up)

Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle a monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific.

“Trying to clean up the Pacific gyre would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went,” [says Moore].

In June the 151ft brigantine Kaisei (Japanese for Planet Ocean) will unfurl its sails in San Francisco to try to prove Mr Moore wrong. Project Kaisei’s flagship will be joined by a decommissioned fishing trawler armed with specialised nets.

The expedition is supported by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, which will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to explore exactly how big and how deep the vortex is, as well as collect as much as 40 tons of junk as a test for the possibility of cleaning up and recycling the spiraling soup of death into fuel for the vessels.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/first-great-pacific-garbage-patch-clean-up-effor-to-begin-next-month.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/great_pacific_garbage_patch.php

NEW SPECIES PHOTOS: Meet the Tiny Toadlet (and Froglet)

The tiny toadlet–an “extremely shy” new species (pictured)–had escaped detection by scientists for centuries until a research team heard its unusual call recently near a camp in Western Australia.

The 0.8-inch-long (2-centimeter-long) creature–discovered by Western Australian Museum scientists near a river in the Kimberley region—is not actually a toad but one of a group of native frogs with stocky, toadlike builds.

“Other than being able to describe these two new species, we know very little about their behavior and habits,” museum herpetologist Paul Doughty said in an April 2009 statement.

“To me they are like new friends that we are just getting to know,” he said.

(more Pictures and Video) 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/photogalleries/new-species-frogs-tiny-toadlet-pictures/index.html

Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs Poison Hundreds of Chinese Workers

Chinese workers making energy-saving fluorescent lightbulbs for Western consumers have been sickened by the hundreds due to mercury poisoning.

While poor factory conditions in China shoulder most of the blame, the news does raise serious questions about just how “green” the mercury-rich fluorescent lightbulbs actually are.

Without a doubt, fluorescent lightbulbs have the potential to significantly reduce worldwide carbon emissions if they continue to be put into wide use. In England, for instance, the atmosphere will be saved an estimated 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year due to the bulbs alone. When it comes to the bigger issues, such as combating global climate change and reducing energy consumption, energy-efficient fluorescents are clearly the green alternative to traditional incandescents. And of course, consumers save more on their electricity bill too, a crucial advantage in this global recession as annual energy costs go up over the hot summer months.

In fact, as air conditioners continuously whir throughout the summer and the energy grid strains to meet the demand in the U.S., it’s difficult to imagine how it could be done without more efficient bulbs and appliances.

But while the environmental and economic advantages of using fluorescent bulbs are paramount, there are also some costs. Fluorescent bulbs work by using electricity to excite mercury vapor, and mercury can be a dangerous, toxic pollutant, perhaps most readily vilified due to its prevalence in the ocean food chain. Thus, proper disposal and care of fluorescent lightbulbs need to come hand in hand with their wide use, otherwise they bring the risk of increased mercury contamination in the environment.

The problem is confounded in the manufacturing process if that mercury is not safely contained and controlled. And that’s precisely the concern in China, where most of the world’s fluorescent lightbulbs are produced, and where factory conditions are poorly regulated and environmentally porous.

In fact, in many cases the factory conditions are downright deplorable, and aside from the long term environmental damage that comes from mercury contamination, hundreds of Chinese workers are exposed to mercury poisoning on a daily basis. These problems have recently escalated due to a rapid increase in foreign demand, particularly because of the European Union’s directive making fluorescent bulbs compulsory by 2012.

The standards for health and safety in the Chinese factories can vary from high tech operations to sweatshops. Some tests have demonstrated concentrations of mercury in factory workers that were 150 times the accepted standard, and many are frequently hospitalized. In one Chinese factory, 121 out of 123 employees had excessive mercury levels.

http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/04/energy-efficient-lightbulbs-poison-hundreds-of-chinese-workers/

New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found — And Spreading

Foxes (such as this red fox photographed in 2008 in Wyoming) may be spreading rabies like humans spread the flu—through simple socialization—in northern Arizona, experts say. The rabies virus appears to have mutated surprisingly quickly and become virulent in foxes and skunks, experts said in April 2009.

Evolving faster than any other new rabies virus on record, a northern-Arizona rabies strain has mutated to become contagious among skunks and now foxes, experts believe.

The strain looks to be spreading fast, commanding attention from disease researchers across the United States (U.S. map).

It’s not so unusual for rabid animals to attack people on hiking trails and in driveways, or even in a bar—as happened March 27, when an addled bobcat chased pool players around the billiards table at the Chaparral in Cottonwood.

Nor is it odd that rabid skunks and foxes are testing positive for a contagious rabies strain commonly associated with big brown bats.

What is unusual is that the strain appears to have mutated so that foxes and skunks are now able to pass the virus on to their kin—not just through biting and scratching but through simple socializing, as humans might spread a flu.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090504-rabies-evolution.html