Peter+Xu


 * WEEK 3: Future Doctors, Future Scientists **

This week, we had a great field trip that was finally something more than running around in a theme park and waiting and chatting and waiting in long lines for some measly entertainment. The campus was relaxing, the food was good, and most importantly, we actually received something useful, something called knowledge.

During our discussion with our tour guide, he mentioned that he brought us in as part of an initiative to introduce more students to the lives of scientists. Seeing that the standard of learning and grades in America are declining (The most recent Programme for International Student Assessment put the US at Rank 36 in Math, Rank 28 in Science, and Rank 24 in Reading), our tour guide blamed it on the aloof scientific industries for living in ivory towers and not actively rousing up the interest of students. Using such programs like this, Mr. Cunningham planned to interest the visiting students in applying for jobs in Engineering and research fields as well as working hard to achieve good grades in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects.

To fuel progress for future generations, it is a no brainer that students must be, at the very least, interested in science. If further convincing is needed just look at the quotes below.





[|PISA Home]

^website of International Educational Assessment media type="custom" key="26173380"

^Importance of Science Education media type="custom" key="26173384"

^TED Talk to Young Scientists


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 * WEEK 2: Scarcity of Water (As mentioned in class) **

Water is not a resource that US citizens usually think about when discussing limited resources. It’s much cheaper than the crude oil we've been fighting over, and no one around us is dying of thirst. In contrast, the UN predicts that around the world, more than 2.8 billion people around the world are affected by the water crisis at least one month per year: 1.2 billion people, or one-sixth of the world population, consistently lack access to clean drinking water due to geographic location, while 1.6 billion live in areas where the infrastructure lacks the ability to draw out usable water from available sources.

The following is a map of the areas where water is becoming a massive concern.



<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In 2000, the United Nations adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration in which the 193 member states made multiple joint goals of improving the world and environment. One of these goals, Goal 7C was aimed at "halving, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Solving the Water Crisis: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To solve the water crisis, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that create water scarcity: Physical, or absolute, water scarcity, and economic water scarcity. The first is the result of inadequate natural water resources to support the population in the region, while the economic water scarcity results from poor management of available water supplies.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To solve physical water scarcity, Desalinization plants should be researched and constructed. While the current costs of these plants are somewhat prohibitive, the costs show signs of decreasing in the future. In addition, the development of an efficient desalinization process would open up the entire ocean for use in human consumption and irrigation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To solve economic water scarcity, several non-profit organization such as Water.org have started giving affordable, small loans to help the infrastructure or outright building the water sanitation facilities needed. By attracting the world’s attention towards the water crisis, more than enough funds can be appropriated to jump start the building of water infrastructure in areas where it is most needed.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">[|Full-Length documentary Film on the possibility of 'Water Wars' (Embedding Disallowed)]

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Interesting TED talk on water purification media type="custom" key="26107724"

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|United Nations Millennium Declaration] [|Water.org]

=WEEK 1: Algae Bio-fuels=

Bio Fuel: The Merriam-Webster Definition: a fuel composed of or produced from biological raw materials.

In today’s advanced technology-intensive world, energy is in high demand in powering the huge multitude of electronic devices, mass production agriculture, and the numerous modes of transportation in an age of globalization.

Fossil fuels, a category that includes oil and coal, is widely accepted to have been developed through millions of years of pressurized decomposition underground; thus, it has been recognized that oil supplies are going to become very scarce and are not likely to be replaced very soon. Going through the list of renewable energy, hydroelectric dams require sources of water while windmills are location specific to only the windiest places, geothermal plants are costly and are very location specific, solar panels have very expensive storage systems and require rare materials, not to mention that the production of these panels releases Nitrogen trifluroide and sulfur hexafluoride, some of the most potent of greenhouse gases and having many thousand times the impact of carbon dioxide on global warming, and nuclear power has been shown to be dangerous, most recently in Japan, which had one of the most secure nuclear plants in the world, and harmful in that it leaves long-lasting radioactive waste. This ultimately leaves bio-fuels as one of the top choices for renewable energy.



Biofuels are materials produced by living organisms that can readily store and release energy. One of the most effective and scientifically popular is the oil and biomass of algae, which produces almost seventeen times more gallons per hectare than the next leading biofuel: palm oil. Although the combustion of algae fuel releases Carbon dioxide, this is the only gas it releases and the Carbon dioxide was only recently removed from the atmosphere during production of algae fuels, creating no net gain of greenhouse gases. Most importantly, with the world’s growing energy crisis and the recent world food crisis of 2007 to 2008, this type of fuel, unlike some other biofuels, uses land unsuitable for agriculture and saline and wastewater, thus having a minimum impact on increasingly scarce fresh water. Algal fuel is readily biodegradable and would not cause much harm to the environment if spilled. The United States Department of Energy that, to replace __all__ the petroleum needs of the entire country, algae fuel production would require 15,000 square miles which is only 0.42% of the size of the United States.



The biofuel of algae is produced through the carbon-fixing process discussed in class.

Calvin Cycle Review:


While the specific steps of the multiple ways of algal fuel processing are patented and kept secret, the general way of gaining combustible fuel from algae are these several simple steps: Source: CSA Illumina Database Company
 * 1) A press is used to extract oil from the plant. About 70-75% can be pressed out this way. Some processes may include another method for greater extraction.
 * 2) Solvents are used to separate sugars from the oil.
 * 3) Oil is ready to be used in diesel. Some processes may include another method for refinement into additional products like jet fuel.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Further discussion about the future of algae biofuels can be seen here: <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A Promising Oil Alternative: Algae Energy

AlgaeTec Overview of Algae Fuels:

media type="custom" key="26025860"

Algae Biofuel: The Future of Energy

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