Petroleum from wood-chips and sunlight?

Hi,


Making petroleum from wood-chips and other plant wastes is feasible now.

Clink on this link to access Sundrop Fuels looks to combine sunlight + wood-chip to make gasoline

Not only is it carbon neutral to use this petroleum, it is very cheap too. It costs only US$2 per gallon compared to US$60 to $80 per gallon for the conventional fossil fuel petroleum.

Since wood-chip, corn, wheat and rice stalks and leaves are produced in large quantities in crop production, these wastes can be turned into cheap petroleum. The energy for the chemical conversion comes from the unlimited sunlight. Light energy is captured by a series of mirrors and directed onto the plant wastes. The high temperature of 1,200 1,300 degrees Celsius created would break the chemical bonds in the organic material and make new bonds to turn them into fuel.


Cheers

Sea slug that could do photosynthesis?

Hi,

Look at this marine slug, a shell-less snail. It is green as it has chloroplasts. It can make its own food by photosynthesis.

Read how this organism has accomplished this marvelous feat. Click on the link below to find out more about it. Green sea slug is part animal, part plant.

Scientists led by Dr Sidney Pierce found that this slug contained chloroplasts containing chlorophyll taken from an algae by the name of Vancheira. Once the slug has enough chloroplasts under its skin, it does not have to eat for the rest of its life. Just like a plant does not eat food.

Why cannot we also have chlorplasts so that we do not have to eat, but just absorb energy for all our needs from the sun like greeen plants?

Bizarre.

Cheers

No more heavy metal poisoning from farmed fish

Man changed sociologically and culturally when he stopped being a hunter-gatherer.He settled down to crop growing and domesticating animals for food, milk, eggs, pelt and for transport.

Here comes the next revolution. Instead of hunting the seas for marine fish for food, farming marine fish on land. It is profitable, gives fresher produce, more predictable quality and quantity.

Scientists have done fresh water fish and prawn farming for a long time. However, the produce tends to be affected by the pollution of the fresh waters. Mercury and other heavy metal poisoning is a perennial problem associated with this kind of farming.

Read the article by clicking on the link UNCW aquaculture facility explores salt-water fish farming to know more about it. Scientists are involved from the beginning as they have to develop and provide new strains of marine fish that are amenable to farming on land!



Cheers

Lesson on digestion of food

Hi,







I hope the 3 videos have helped you to understand:

-peristalsis, the wave-like rhythmic movement in the stomach and intestines to churn food and move food along the gut.

-mechanical digestion or chewing in the mouth. teeth break food into smaller particles

-chemical digestion or breaking down of food into smaller molecules so that they can be absorbed into the blood stream.

-producctionof of enzymes in mouth, amylase digests starch into maltose.

-production of enzyme pepsin and hydrochloric acid in the stomach. these help in the breakdown of proteins and kill germs in the food respectively.

-production of lipase and digestion of fats in the small intestine.

-villi in the small intestine to increase surface area in contact with digested food so that absorption is more efficient.

-absorption of digested food, small diffusible molecules into the blood stream.

-the circulatory system carries the food in the blood to all parts of the body for use or assimilation.

Cheers

Lesson on Osmosis and diffusion

Hi,
Happy New Year to all my students.
There are a number of videos in this lesson. I think you would enjoy all of them. Some show experimental results and others show cells under the microscope as they undergo changes in solutions of different concentrations.









This set of 5 videos are very thorough. Parts 1 and 2 are simpler. Parts 3, 4 and 5 would be very relevant to the pure biology students.












Cheers

Celebrate your skin colours

Hi,

This intriguing video explains why dark skinned people originate from equatorial countries such as Africa, India and South East Asia.

Melanin is a pigment molecule that give the dark colour to skin. It evolved by natural selection to cut out harmful UV radiation from the sun. It is a natural sunscreen.

However there has been much migration of light skinned people from low UV places to high UV places and vice versa. UVB light is important to make vitamin D in our skins. However, dark skinned people in the countries nearer to the poles are not getting enough of it and this will lead to serious health consequences such as bone and teeth problems, reduced immune system, mood and mental health problems.

Also dark skinned people who work at desk jobs should be aware of these health risks.

Light skinned people have less melanin and so they run the risk of skin cancer due to excessive UVB damaging their DNA. Lighter skin colour is a product of evolution by natural selection in a latitude that gets very little UVB light.






Cheers

"TACARE" and "Roots and Shoots", what are they?

Hi,

Watch this video and be convinced by Jane Goodall on why she is hopeful that we can help humans and animals live together in harmony.

She pins her hope on these three concepts:
1-Advances in technology can be harnessed to rally us to take care of nature.
2-Nature is resilient.
3-Determination and resilience of the human spirit when we are empowered.







Cheers