What the FRACK?

Mad in Moab

I took this photograph of the Colorado River one week ago and anger has been drumming up inside me ever since.  This image shows browned water leaching into the river from the old altas uranium mine site less than a mile north of Moab, Utah.  The Department of Energy working with hundreds of millions of US tax dollars now toils to excavate and relocate radioactive waste perturbed from this site  by a private company over forty years ago.  Is this the fate of Northern Colorado south Texas and southwestern South Dakota?   How can we stop it?   If you want to argue for uranium mining please look closely at this image first!

Swimming in Ethanol's Ethos

The Arizona Chemical wood pulp mill in Panama City, Florida sits within a stone's throw of the Gulf of Mexico.

Hey there TPG readers, CHECK THIS OUT!!! This article has been translated to Hatian Creole.  I am both flattered and impressed at this unsolicited dissemination of TPG material. Quite cool :)

By Kristopher Hite

Walking on a balance beam, the idea of ethanol powering America's future took a shove from the scientific community this week. A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology indicates that no matter the starting material whether it be corn kernels or wood chips, switch grass, and corn stover (all forms of cellulose), the environmental impacts of more ethanol, and other so called biofuels, in the gas tanks of America will mean increased environmental damage. Specifically, this study discusses the expanding "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. Nutrient run-off from increased farm fertilizers being applied to crops throughout the Midwestern United States will drain into the gulf and cause larger algal blooms. This, in turn, will rob the water of dissolved oxygen killing fish, crustaceans, and other gulf-water inhabitants.

Here we have a case of clashing federal mandates. The EPA has required that steps be taken to reduce the size of the Gulf's dead zone while congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007 which requires the production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. These two orders just will not jive with current agricultural practices.

Multinational biofuel manufactures are sitting pretty with the current federal mandate written in the fine print of the EISA but the citizenry need access to the knowledge buried in this recent paper to hold these companies accountable for the their potential environmental impacts. To the credit of cellulose-derived ethanol the amount of nutrients running off into the gulf would be reduced by 20% if all ethanol were to be derived from cellulose vs. corn. But either scenario will undoubtedly kill more organisms living in the gulf and increase the area of the dead zone.

Ethanol as a fuel source for transportation, home heating, and industry continues to be a double edged sword. After taking flack for driving up tortilla prices in Mexico there was a shift to talking up cellulosic ethanol in lieu of corn ethanol, but with evidence like this being presented it makes the process a harder sell. But who needs to make a sale when you've already made a long term deal with the feds?

From an applied research side I am encouraged to seek out the cutting edge of cellulosic ethanol manufacturing technology so that mandated production is done in the least wasteful way. This research lays inside fungal genomes. Scientists continue improving enzymes produced by millions of years of evolution by tweaking the amino acid sequences and increasing efficiency and stability of some very useful enzymes, in the case of deriving ethanol from the woody parts of plants (cellulose) these enzymes are called cellulases. They break down the long chains of linked sugars that constitute cellulose. By manually changing the single amino acids and then testing thermal stability and conversion efficiency scientists are able to make the process of ethanol production more efficient. Recent research in the Journal of Biochemistry reports this process in action. By demonstrating that single amino acid substitutions, in the context of a chain of hundreds of amino acids, can stabilize enzymes dramatically a group from Cal-Tech proves that human manipulation of genes can, in fact, improve the efficiency of our transition to a home-grown renewable energy economy. The Carnot's and Tesla's of this age are hard at work at this biochemical frontier.

I am torn on this issue as I can see two futures coming of all this. One in which we have attained energy independence and are free to refine our energy equilibrium to the point of balance with the ecosystems in which we live. Or the other where our environment has completely eroded and we have no choice but to fight amongst each other for the scant resources still available. The technologist in me says "onward" while the environmentalist says "onward, but mindfully." In either scenario the ideal of efficiency is a positive one that can be easily applied locally by individuals adopting more mindful habits.


Note:  This blog post was picked up by an editor at SEED magazine and turned into and e-cover story - The Dead Zone Dilemma.   In this article Dave Munger questions my optimism and my advocacy as a scientist. In so doing he is questioning some basic tenets of scientific inquiry.

He asks - "Shouldn’t scientists just be interested in giving us the facts, staying removed from policy decisions and letting the general public and politicians decide how to act? Doesn’t becoming an advocate introduce bias into the scientific process, potentially tarnishing results?"

After contemplating these questions I responded in a post titled "Should Scientists Speak their Minds?"

Heinzelman, P., Snow, C., Smith, M., Yu, X., Kannan, A., Boulware, K., Villalobos, A., Govindarajan, S., Minshull, J., & Arnold, F. (2009). SCHEMA Recombination of a Fungal Cellulase Uncovers a Single Mutation That Contributes Markedly to Stability Journal of Biological Chemistry, 284 (39), 26229-26233 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.C109.034058
Costello, C., Griffin, W., Landis, A., & Matthews, H. (2009). Impact of Biofuel Crop Production on the Formation of Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico Environmental Science & Technology DOI: 10.1021/es9011433

ARRA signed at Museum of Nature and Science

Today the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is signed at the museum of nature and science in Denver. Appropriate it is that this recently blue state host such a moment. The text of the ARRA is available here for your pursuing pleasure and is overwhelming in its breadth and depth. It addresses the economic downturn with the following list of priorities. I have no memory of a single piece of legislation attempting to fund so many programs simultaneously.

(1) To preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery.
(2) To assist those most impacted by the recession.
(3) To provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health.
(4) To invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits.
(5) To stabilize State and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases.

With start-up companies like AVA Solar making their home in the sun-soaked state it is no wonder the road to renewal begins in the mile high city. To read more about what the stimulus bill actually does for jump starting clean energy, environmental projects, and scientific research click here. This article clearly breaks down the planned $60 billion set aside for green initiatives within ARRA into understandable bits.

Steve Chu, our new energy guru

I first encountered Dr. Steven Chu's visage on the internet last spring while preparing a presentation explaining optical trapping. Dr. Chu's work involving the manipulation of single atoms and molecules earned him the Nobel prize in physics in 1997. As a professor of molecular and cellular biology Dr. Chu has a uniquely biological perspective into the realm of alternative energies. This perspective is traditionally lacking in heavyweight energy politicians. His leadership skills, honed as director of the Lawrence Berkley National labs, also positions him well to take charge at the DOE. Despite all these positive aspects Dr. Chu has drawn fire from some blogs and news agencies for his involvement with negotiating the largest oil-company/academic-institution partnership in history. Mother Jones reports about the formation of "the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute, to conduct biofuels research. The proposal sparked fierce opposition from faculty and students at the University of California-Berkeley, which will host the institute. Biology professor Ignacio Chapela called the partnership the 'coup de grace to the very idea of a university that can represent the best interest of the public.'"

Ignacio Chapela is a vocal genetics professor at Berkley who gained authority in the anti-GMO movement with his studies on corn genes that had been modified by scientists found freely migrating into wild corn (tiosinte) in Mexico. He appears in the documentary the Future of Food describing his research and explaining his position on GMOs. Of course these criticisms should be investigated, but I must say, Steven Chu should not be written off as someone who is owned by the corporations! Of all the oil companies British Pertolium has been cited time and time again as the most environmentally conscious. The Sierra Club reports that BP is the least of all evils when it comes to filling your gas tank. A global approach to remediating climate change will require cooperation and regulation of the multinational companies not an all out boycott. A revolution from within the system is required to change the energy infrastructure of the United States. Even the giants can tell which way the wind blows. Besides, any scientist that can quote Faulkner can not be all bad.

I am using this post as an excuse to experiment with embedding a power point presentation. Below is the presentation explaining single molecule optical trapping using focused laser beams. The drawback is that you can not see the animations. If you have problems viewing the ppt please comment. We at TPG hope you like the recent header upgrade. Expect more upgrades over the coming weeks.
Optical Tweezersv2

Transparency Disclaimer: My sister in-law worked for BP for about 5 years in early 00's. She is an adamant environmentalist/conservationist/lover of nature and had nothing but good things to say about this company.