Kevin

=Bioluminescence =

The idea that living organisms can produce light by biological processes has intrigued me since I was in elementary school. While browsing the TED website, I found these two really neat videos about marine bioluminescence, and hopefully you get a chance to take a look.

media type="custom" key="9509150" David Gallo briefly covers glowing fishes, then goes on to show some amazing footage of cephalopod camouflage and coloration change. Evolution does some amazing work!

media type="custom" key="9509162" Edith Widder is a professional marine biologist who specializes in deep-sea exploration. She invented a ring of lights that glows in a timed pattern to imitate a bioluminescent jellyfish. Interestingly enough, when she goes to the bottom of the sea, she gets some cool responses from the inhabitants.

The connection here is two-fold. As TED talks, these both ultimately redirect to the idea that science and research can improve the human condition. Studying exotic creatures often allows discovery and isolation of new chemical compounds that serve as antibiotics, chemotherapeutic medicines, etc.

Here at http://vet.osu.edu/biosciences/bioluminescence-news-video, you can read about how inserting a bioluminescence gene in mice can allow tracking of cancerous tissue growth.

Moreover, these underwater communities are facing some serious threats from human activity. Much like animals on factory farms, benthic life zone organisms are often devastated by trawler nets, which essentially scrape the bottom of the ocean and scoop up everything in the process. In addition, nuclear weapons testing has been conducted in large part in the open ocean.

media type="custom" key="9509246" This awesome narration-less video shows all the nuclear explosions in the past 50 years (up to 1998, when some parties signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). It's pretty slow in the beginning, but starting from around 1960, things start to pick up pace.

Let me know what you think if you find this interesting!



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==================================================================================================================================== After the recent Japanese nuclear energy disaster, I am concerned that public opposition to nuclear energy has increased substantially, as a small number of highly publicized examples tend to influence the public's opinion far more than well-grounded research (availability heuristic). Bill Gates and other prominent entrepreneurs and scientists, however, have recently become proponents of a promising new form of nuclear energy - thorium. When it comes to sustainability, energy is at the top of the list of issues we need to deal with.

media type="youtube" key="JaF-fq2Zn7I" height="303" width="462"

Upon initial inspection, it almost seems silly that we haven't begun using thorium widely yet. Here are just a few of its advantages over plutonium or uranium ores: - Much larger quantities in natural environment - Less risk of use for nuclear weapons proliferation by terrorists and rogue states - Greater energy efficiency - Less nuclear waste production

In fact, Nobel prizewinner Carlo Rubbia conducted studies at CERN to show that thorium contained 200 times the energy of uranium and 3.5 million times the energy of coal by mass. India has long-term plans to run on thorium-powered reactors, and researchers around the world are excited about the possibilities. Just think: **8 tablespoons of thorium** are enough to power an American's **lifelong energy demands.**

What's more, thorium reactors are cheap, are meltdown-proof, and provide a way to burn up existing radioactive waste! According to some sources, we could be fossil-fuel free within 5 years. And there's enough thorium to last us a millennium.

In western India, Kakrapar Atomic Power Station is one of the first experimental thorium reactors.



Frustratingly enough, this amazing technology hasn't seen the light of day for one simple reason: lack of funding. Politicians often fail to see the value in technology and research that do not directly pertain to reelection and the demands of their constituencies. Progress is being made, however: Senators Reid and Hatch attempted in 2008 to pass a bill to investigate thorium as a potential fuel source; the bill never made it to the floor of the Senate.

I sure hope I will get to see these awesome reactors in action someday.

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==================================================================================================================================== Back to bioluminescence! Peter made me wonder about the actual mechanisms behind the generation of light, so I decided to look into that a bit. The importance of this lies in the fact that bioluminescence, unlike other forms of light generation, is "cold light." One can think of it as chemical generation of light (chemiluminescence), but in an organism and catalyzed by an enzyme. This is a "Christmas Tree": the lights are actually lots of fireflies on the conifer.

Ultimately, scientists have discovered that all bioluminescent reactions are powered by the oxidation (in this case, literally the addition of oxygen) of the molecule luciferin. As expected, the enzyme is called luciferase, and the intensity in lumens is proportional to the speed of the enzyme activity. Interestingly enough, much like in chloroplasts, the presence of accessory and antenna proteins enables production and regulation of the light production. They also allow modulation of the color of light produced (Green-fluorescent protein, or GFP, is a famous example that won the 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize). We have discovered 5 distinct chemical classes of luciferins: aldehydes, benzothiazoles, imidazolopyrazines, tetrapyrroles and flavins.

Because bioluminescence is cold light, the energy released in the chemical reaction behind the light is released not as heat but as electronic excitation. Just like energy absorbed during radiation, the molecule subjected to energy finds itself in a higher energy state, so that spectrum distributions for the two types of energy are often similar. One key difference is the tunability of bioluminescent light by the proteins in the environment. In ocean water, blue and green light is most easily perceived; whether a cause or result, ocean organisms' optical pigments tend to show greatest sensitivity to the blue-green light range. At the darkest depths of the ocean, bioluminescence often functions for Defense Schooling of fish Luminous lure Feeding Communication (in the dark) Mating Camouflage

Components of bioluminescent mechanisms have been successfully isolated and cloned. As a result of these research advances, applications have abounded. The calcium-dependent photoprotein aequorin from the jellyfish //Aequorea victoria// was cloned in '85. Because the intensity of its luminescence varies with calcium concentration, aequorin has been used for advantage in the monitoring of cell calcium. Firefly luciferase has also been successfully cloned. As an extremely sensitive method for the assay of ATP, this bioluminescence system has found wide application, e.g., to detect microbial contamination in foodstuffs, water systems, etc.

Green-Fluorescent Protein, or GFP, was first cloned in 1992, and has since become one of the most famous biological proteins. It has discovered great use as a protein and genetic marker or tag, and because it also glows, it is easily employed to study the uptake and usage of various proteins in the cell.

Other aerobic bioluminescent bacteria are being used to study water quality and dissolved oxygen levels: if intensity of light decreases, it is most likely that DO levels have dropped.

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==================================================================================================================================== =Bacterial decomposition of Styrofoam=

Plastic pollution is a major, major problem. As consumer culture spreads around the globe, it will only get worse.

Here is a TED talk about the plastic pollution problem. media type="custom" key="9685642"

Because bacteria reproduce so quickly and their genetic proofreading processes are less robust, they possess the ability to evolve very rapidly, especially in relative terms. Recently, I read about two students who were able to breed bacteria to survive by eating Styrofoam simply by taking a sample of the strain and culling out those able to digest the waste. Then, by manipulating temperature, pH, and other variables, they were able to get these bacteria to eat up over 60 percent of the initial Styrofoam. The major problem with polystyrene (a specific patented form sold by Dow Chemical is what we refer to as Styrofoam) is that it takes very long - thousands of years - to fully decompose. It is environmentally unfriendly and has the potential to cause much damage to wildlife. If left in a landfill, polystyrene foam becomes a major nuisance in terms of space and longevity. Scientists do know that polystyrene can be "pyrolyzed" to create a cheap fuel called styrene oil. Even more valuable, however, would be the derivation from styrene oil of a fully biodegradable product, most likely plastic. Dr. Kevin O'Connor has been one of the leading experts in this field of research. He was able to produce bacteria (//P. putida//) that transforms the styrene oil product into a biodegradable plastic called PHA. PHA is flexible and heat-resistant. Most importantly, it rapidly and naturally decomposes. Given the EPA's statistic that only 1% of the 14 million metric tons of polystyrene produced each year is recycled, Dr. O'Connor's research has major applications in reducing waste's impact on the environment.

He published a widely acclaimed paper in the American Chemical Society's annual release, but only paying subscribers are able to access it; Dr. O'Connor was kind enough to send me a copy. The methodology is very creative: because the researchers figured that the bacteria outside a polystyrene factory/dump would likely be adapted to consuming leached polystyrene, they obtained a small mass of soil from the land surrounding the factory. Then, by sieving the soil and homogenizing the new small samples, the researchers were able to dilute the soil and spread the diluted soil onto nutrient plates. PHA levels were monitored to find samples with highest PHA generation. A variety of tests, including an advanced form of chromatography, DMA, TGA, and NMR were performed to confirm PHA presence, stability and desirable properties. Tests indicated positive.

In fact, O'Connor and his team have succeeded in sequencing the genetic material from all three strains of bacteria (all Pseudomonas) to provide even greater precision in identifying the different bacteria.