MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'biodiesel'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:38:22 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4159276&cid=t_141308_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSciencebaseScienceBlog%2F%7E3%2FZfVMnbGkAHs%2Falcohol-effects-giant-testicles-pennycress-diesel.html An alcoholic FAQ – Aspirin and other drugs prevent the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (found in the stomach and liver) from breaking down alcohol, thus slowing the liver’s ability to metabolise alcohol and so it accumulates in your blood faster and has longer-lasting effects, which means you get drunk faster and say drunk longer, but you will have an almighty hangover too (one that aspirin will not cure) The biggest balls of all – The largest testicles by mass as a proportion of body mass are those of the bush cricket. According to behavioural ecologist Karim Vahed who has presumably had a good look, the tuberous bush cricket has testes accounting for 14% of its body mass. Making pennycress pay its way – I'd never heard of this weed until today, but apparently, p... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4159276 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:29:19 +0100 4159276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151855&cid=t_141308_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSciencebaseScienceBlog%2F%7E3%2FZfVMnbGkAHs%2Falcohol-effects-giant-testicles-pennycress-diesel.html An alcoholic FAQ – Aspirin and other drugs prevent the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (found in the stomach and liver) from breaking down alcohol, thus slowing the liver’s ability to metabolise alcohol and so it accumulates in your blood faster and has longer-lasting effects, which means you get drunk faster and say drunk longer, but you will have an almighty hangover too (one that aspirin will not cure) The biggest balls of all – The largest testicles by mass as a proportion of body mass are those of the bush cricket. According to behavioural ecologist Karim Vahed who has presumably had a good look, the tuberous bush cricket has testes accounting for 14% of its body mass. Making pennycress pay its way – I'd never heard of this weed until today, but apparently, p... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151855 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:29:19 +0100 4151855 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3780356&cid=t_141308_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdoes-anesthesia-contribute-to-the-end-of-the-world%2F2010.07.22 In a development that may have you undergo your next medical procedure the old-fashioned way, two researchers from the University of California-San Francisco and the University of Oslo are reporting that inhaled anesthetics significantly contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer and add to the overall global warming gas content in the atmosphere. Moreover, the study’s authors conclude with some valuable advice for your own practice: “From our calculations, avoiding N2O and unnecessarily high fresh gas flow rates can reduce the environmental impact of inhaled anesthetics.” We’d like to venture even further. Not only would we recommend closed-circuit, low-flow anesthesia even with sevoflurane (damn those kidneys!), we’d also suggest that patients arrive b... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3780356 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:00:01 +0100 3780356 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2232792&cid=t_141308_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2FIxmzcNmRaoU%2F So this is actually old-ish news, but I saw this press release about paper published last year describing the ability of the fungus Gliocladium roseum to naturally synthesizes diesel compounds. The paper from Gary Strobel @Montana State and collaborators describes that G. roseum produces volatile hydrocarbon on cellulose media. Extracts from the host plant (Eucryphia cordifolia) were also able to support growth of the fungus alone. This production of products have been dubbed “myco-diesel”. G. roseum is an endophyte of E. cordifolia I wonder what kinds of advantages it might provide for the fungus or the plant to produce these hydrocarbons. I wonder if it is better to focus on these organisms that have already evolved a way to make these hydrocarbons directly from cellulose ra... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2232792 Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:57:07 +0100 2232792 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=811348&cid=t_141308_107_f&fid=36045&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbayblab.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F08%2Fbiofuels.html Every time I read about the economics of producing ethanol fuel, it seems that it is doomed from the start. The problem is that producing ethanol from food crops, such as corn, creates additional problems, such as increasing the demand and price of a basic food staple, and using up energy to grow the crop vs how much energy you can produce. The energy balance of producing an intensive agricultural crop like corn is negative. The reason it is being pushed so hard, especially by the Bush administration (and also in Canada) is that corn production is subsidized, and we produce excess corn. Yet corn takes a lot of fertilizer and a lot of energy to grow and process. It's a win/win situation for politician, they can appear to be pro-environmental, and keep farmers in business by throwing money a... Bayblab blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=811348 Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:54:00 +0100 811348