Andrew

Week 4: Bio Battery Last week, Mrs. Lil mentioned about bio battery, meaning putting a live organism inside a battery to produce infinite amount of energy. I was intrigued by this because since glucose is a clean energy, utilizing this can both improve and sustain our world in the future. I decided to research on this topic and stumbled across Sony and its incredible Bio Battery. media type="youtube" key="fk4z6ZtEFzs" width="560" height="315" media type="youtube" key="yYaj2mrsWlc" width="560" height="315" This video(right) shows that Sony is incorporating enzymes, proteins that facilitate the chemical reactions inside our body, and glucose. Just like the process behind cellular respiration, this Bio Battery breaks down glucose with the help from enzymes, and the flows of electrons and hydrogen ions create ATP, or usable energy. To be more specific, glucose is broken down in the anode side of the battery, producing electrons and protons. Then, protons travel to the cathode side through the separator, while the electrons travel to the same direction through the mediator then to the external circuit. Finally, oxygen reduction occurs, creating water. The Sony did proclaim that its experimentation is still at an embryonic stage; however, in my opinion, this technology has great potential to change and sustain our world. It is eco-friendly to the environment, and there are no concerns about the risks of handling this. For example, unlike fossil fuels, glucose is carbon neutral, which does not increase the carbon dioxide level and cause global warming. The next video(left) shows the experimentation of their own Bio Batteries by using Gatorade. Here are some articles regarding Bio Battery: [] (Bacteria Power Bio Battery) [] (How Bacteria transfer electric Energy) [] (How Bacteria transfer electric Energy) Week 3: Water Crisis == Last week, we watched a fascinating video about Michael Pritchard's new invention of turning filthy water into drinkable water without any harmful bacteria or virus. By putting water inside, it can filter out everything due to its 15nm pores. It was very intriguing because now, I believe that the crisis can be averted. However, this catastrophe is still happening right now. ==

Here are some [|Statistics] for you!
== We need water everyday. Even though you can survive without food for more than a month, you cannot live without water for less than a week. Dehydration can drastically reduce the amount of blood in our body, eventually forcing our heart to pump harder to deliver oxygen to the muscles. Our body is about 70-80% water, and we use it in various ways: homeostasis, lubrication of muscles and joints, and removal of waste through perspiration. Even though we are constantly surrounded by drinking water, about one billion people from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America live without clean water. It is very stressful and devastating to those mothers because they lose their babies every 19 seconds from water shortage or contamination. ==
 * ==3.4 million people die each year from water-related causes. (Nearly all deaths, 99%, are from developing countries.) That's nearly the entire city of Los Angeles!==
 * ==An American taking a five minute shower uses more water than an average person in developing country uses in a day.==
 * ==Women in Africa spend 200 million hours a day to find water.==
 * ==1.5 million children under the age of five die from diarrhea.==

media type="youtube" key="iRGZOCaD9sQ" width="420" height="315"media type="youtube" key="S4l268neItY" width="420" height="315" == These videos talk about how the shortage and contamination of water affect people's daily lives. While men are away working, women and especially children walk miles after miles trying to find the nearest swamp or river to gather water. They do know the risks of drinking this contaminated water that can cause diarrhea and dehydration. They do know the risks that could affect they babies. They do know the risks of being threatened or even killed for just a bottle of water. However, they need water to survive. The time they spent on looking for water is usually more than that of their education and any other activities. The video then explains how if we distribute water to developing countries, they would spend less money on curing diseases, thus more money on improving the infrastructure and education to future generations. After watching these videos, the shortage and contamination of water affect both societal and psychological aspects of our daily lives. I wanted to focus more on the technologies and how we can solve this. But I believe we should first understand the struggles that the people in Africa and Southeast Asia are trying to overcome. With the technologies at one side, people should also constantly show attention to this problem and give them confidence that one day, this crisis will be over. ==

[]
Week 2: Healthy Eating=Happy Life I LOVE pizza. It is probably one of my favorite food of all time. After running or playing basketball, I open up my laptop, order a medium pepperoni pizza and buffalo wings, and eat without any hesitation. I know for a fact that pizza is detrimental for my health, but I didn't realize how bad it really was. This is a nutritional fact for only one slice of Domino's pizza and ways to burn that calories.  When people buy foods, the first thing they see is the amount of saturated fat contained. Even though fats are indeed important to our diet as it acts as an insulator for heat, they can elevate the cholesterol level and build up in the arteries, leading to artheroscleorosis or heart attack. Also, large amount of sodium can also increase blood pressure as well. I assume that all of you guys already know this, but people still eat these junk foods. Why? media type="custom" key="23155832" width="113" height="111" In the video, Jamie Oliver's passionate speech about people's ignorance to foods and obesity really impacted me a lot. What he is trying to say is that most of the people are not informed about foods. The children couldn't identify the vegetable they ate, saying potato for tomato and eggplant for pear. Oliver believes that the school has the responsibility to teach those children about those foods so that they can choose healthy diet and pass that knowledge to future generations. Then, he talks about his friends he met in Virginia and their stories about obesity. This one particular (at 4:22) girl only had 6 years to live. Overall, I really admired his passion and his dedication to change the world free from obesity. For me, each food represents a chance or an opportunity to nourish and sustain your health. I think that the education about food is efficient, but the companies should also change their attitude about putting more chemicals to reduce the cost of making the product as well. [] (In this article, in Peru the government signed a new law to encourage healthier food habits in schools to reduce obesity.)

Week 1: 3-D Printer: the solution to a health crisis

For me, sustainability means being able to live through hardships and obstacles with the help from technologies. As I was searching videos, I was very intrigued by Anthony Atala's Ted talk about printing a transplantable tissues and organs. Over the last ten years the number of required donors to patients doubled and 90% of the people are being waitlisted due to limited number organ donors. For that reason, these patients unfortunately die every day. To solve this crisis, Atala created this 3-D printer, just like the mechanism of a normal printer, that senses the damaged parts of our body and fills them with stem cells. To be more specific, scientists obtain a tissue sample from a deceased organ, shape it in a desired form, and layer it with stem cells that can multiply in any environment by using a glass capillary tubes. In the video, he was able to construct a heart valve, a human bladder, and a liver tissue. More surprising to me was that Atala was able to use this to one of his patients, Luke, who received an engineered bladder and is now able to live and function like a normal person. Even though this is still in the embryonic stage and is far from actual clinical, I believe that in the next few years, this can truly revolutionize the world and save the patients. media type="custom" key="23083072" width="36" height="35"

Now, according to this article, a group of scientists at Oxford University created an improved printer that creates droplets that have various proteins inside and surrounded by a lipid bilayer. Because of this unique structure, the droplets are able to respond to their local environment such as temperature and pH more efficiently and be more stable. Also, scientists could add protein aHL (alpha-hemolysin) from staphylococcal bacteria to allow ions to move through the lipid bilayer so that it can actually function as a normal cell. [] []

Before this assignment, I had absolute no interest in biotechnology. However, now I am amazed by how our world is striving to improve and move forward by coming up with new inventions. This is just a small step that can lead to greater success.