More Holistic Bio-ethanol, Pluripotent Adult Stem Cells, and more

Although I prefer bio-fuel alcohols be made from cellulose, cane, sorghum, or sugar beets, this report from Purdue Research Foundation suggests that maize (corn) may offer some advantages in terms of by-products.

A Purdue University team led by professor Li-fu Chen and research assistant Qin Xu, both from the Purdue food science department, discovered a new method to create ethanol from corn. The method also produces biodegradable byproducts that could be safely eaten.

"Our process, which we are calling the Chen-Xu Method, not only makes ethanol, but products that are fit for human consumption," Chen said. "This process also produces corn oil, corn fiber, gluten and zein, which is a protein that can be used in the manufacture of plastics so that the containers are good for the environment because they are biodegradable and easily decompose.

"The containers would actually be edible, although there probably wouldn't be much market for that."

Bio Processing Technology, based in West Lafayette, Ind., was formed to bring inventions from Chen and Xu to the marketplace. They have teamed with John Y.D. Tse, a management professor emeritus who is CEO of the startup company.

The Chen-Xu Method produces about 2.85 gallons of ethanol for every bushel of corn processed. That output is slightly higher than current methods, but the same process that creates the ethanol also creates other marketable products. Chen said the method also meets federal Clean Air Act standards, eliminating costs that other methods incur in meeting environmental regulations.

"One of the common methods of manufacturing ethanol, called dry milling, is often the cause of air pollutants by drying and storage of DDG, a byproduct of the process," Chen said. "Another method — wet milling — produces an odor because it requires the input of sulfur dioxide. The Chen-Xu Method eliminates both issues, and the only odor comes from the smell of the corn and yeast fermentation."

Using a machine originally designed to make plastics, the Chen-Xu Method grinds corn kernels and liquefies starch with high temperatures. The water input required by wet milling is reduced by 90 percent, Chen said. Wastewater output is cut by 95 percent, and electricity use is reduced by 47 percent.

"The total operating cost of a Chen-Xu Method ethanol plant should be much less than that of a wet-milling plant, and total equipment investment is less than half," Chen said. "And with proper planning and management, total equipment investment should be less than that of a dry-milling plant."

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In the great stem cell race, it appears likely that Adult Stem Cells (ASCs) offer some advantages over Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs). Of course, ASCs offer a level of biocompatibility that ESCs may not achieve, but now it seems that ASCs may offer another safety advantage--less risk of cancerous tumours. This newsrelease from University of Missouri-Columbia describes research that may expand the use of ASCs in the fairly near term.

"Embryonic stem (ES) cells are able to give rise to the remarkable diversity of cell types that constitute a whole organism such as a human," said Elmer Price, a scientist at the MU Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center and associate professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine. "However, this 'pluripotency,' or the ability of the cells to become anything, can also be a curse because ES cells can be misled by biochemical signals when they are transplanted into an adult during cell transplantation experiments. This often leads to the generation of unwanted cell types and, on occasion, tumor formation. Because of this, ES cell transplantation can raise serious safety issues. In this study, we developed adult stem cells from the blood of an mature animal that were able to be directed into specific cell types such as neurons and blood vessel cells, but they were not as pluripotent as ES cells. We have not observed any evidence of tumor formation."

Price extracted the adult stem cells from pigs' blood. These particular pig cells are unique because the pigs also contained a gene that makes their cells fluorescent. This allowed Price to track the cells as they developed into nerve or blood vessel cells or upon transplantation. The fluorescent pigs were created by MU animal scientist Randy Prather, who along with MU researcher Mike Foley, is a co-author of this paper.

In the study, Price was able to develop and sustain adult stem cell lines and then induce them to turn into specific cell types by exposing them to different chemical signals, depending on which type of cell he wanted to develop. For successful adult stem cell transplantation therapy, different diseases will require different cell types. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are difficult to grow as pure cell populations and can develop into tumor-type tissue, Price's adult stem cells efficiently developed into specific cell types with no abnormal tissue.

"In theory, embryonic stem cells have the ability to become almost any cell type or organ," Price said. "Very complex chemical signals need to be in place with embryonic stem cells in order for them to develop into the appropriate type of cell. However, we have shown that if you can isolate adult stem cells, you can make them generate the appropriate type of cell with much more ease and specificity. One day, we may be able to isolate similar adult stem cells from a patient, manipulate the cells in a petri dish, and then re-introduce them back into that same patient as a therapy."

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Is there any methane deep in the earth's mantle? That is a mystery that researchers from Lawrence Livermore and Argonne national laboratories, Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, Harvard University, and Indiana University at South Bend are trying to solve.

For the methane experiments, researchers at the Geophysical Laboratory used Argonne's diamond anvil cell (DAC)—a small mechanical press that forces together the tips of two diamond anvils and creates extremely high pressures on a sample of a material held within a metal gasket. DACs allow researchers to measure material properties under static pressure and at varying pressures and temperatures over many hours. (See S&TR, December 2004, Putting the Squeeze on Materials.) Diamonds are used because they can withstand these ultrahigh pressures.

Also, their transparency permits diagnostic radiation, such as x rays and visible light, to pass unhampered through their crystalline structure.

Comparing Experimental Results with Calculations

To determine the chemical reactions that might occur at the pressures and temperatures of Earth's upper mantle, the researchers used the DAC to squeeze a microgram sample of iron oxide, calcite, and water to pressures up to 11 gigapascals at temperatures of more than 1300°C. Then they analyzed the results using Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron x-ray diffraction, and optical microscopy.

Raman spectroscopy measures the wavelength and intensity of scattered light from molecules as they vibrate about their bonds. These vibrations occur at certain frequencies. At normal pressures, electrons are tightly held within an atom's inner electron bands or shells. Squeezing a material under extreme pressures forces its atoms into a different orientation, which causes the delocalization of electrons and changes a material's properties and molecular structures.

By observing the frequency created when the electrons move or vibrate, scientists can tell how the elements are bonding to each other. Raman spectroscopy is highly sensitive to the stretching vibrations between carbon and hydrogen. The Raman spectra for the DAC samples showed hydrocarbon-rich regions.

The bond vibration between carbon and hydrogen becomes apparent in the spectra when the sample temperature reaches 500°C and is very strong by 600°C.

The researchers used synchrotron x-ray diffraction to determine the principal reaction products that occur as the DAC squeezes the samples. With synchrotron x-ray diffraction, a beam of x rays passes through the sample, and the resulting diffraction pattern is recorded on an x-ray film or detector. Changes in the pattern reveal how much of each element is involved in the chemical reaction at different temperatures and pressures. Diffraction results on the team's samples showed the presence of calcium oxide and magnetite—a chemically reduced form of iron oxide. When researchers examined the samples using optical microscopy, they again found changes indicating the presence of methane. Most notable were bubbles, which Raman measurements confirmed to be methane.

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At a U Missouri-Columbia power plant, corn cobs will be used as a supplementary fuel with coal to determine if corn cobs might work as an economic fuel extender that is more environmentally friendly than burning pure coal.

Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs are both intensively involved in monitoring nuclear power plant activity. By learning to separate the short term radioactive from long term radioactive elements from nuclear waste, these labs intend to reduce the necessary space needed for long term nuclear waste storage. In addition, these two New Mexico National Labs are deeply involved in plans for producing hydrogen from nuclear energy, to help create the "hydrogen economy."

A lot of resources are being devoted to developing alternative energy sources to petroleum. At the same time, oil discovery methods are improving significantly--suggesting that peak oil is standing off well into the future.

Bio-medical research into stem cells, nanotech medicine, synthetic biology, and other radical new biomedical fields promises to improve the length and quality of the average person's life and health. The western world is poised on the brink of massive change for the better in several areas.

The bad news is that a lot of organisations and less organised groups of people do not want life to get better, unless it does so on their terms. These are political and religious ideologues who are enemies of individual liberties combined with wealth, because they do not like the choices that individuals make in spending their wealth. This blog will report--loosely--on the technological and scientific advances that are moving closer every day. But we will also be keeping an eye on the "killjoys and deadbeats" who want to spoil the party for the rest of us. These people are real and are very serious. We have to be just as serious in meeting the threat that they represent.