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 'biofuels'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:28:49 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642789&cid=t_110468_125_f&fid=34819&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FFullosseousflapsDentalBlog%2F%7E3%2Fl48sZo5xdWo%2F These are my links for March 28th from 09:23 to 09:27: Bioenergy Crop Company Plants Its Flag in India – Super Green Biofuels Inc., which aims to make fuel from the inedible seed of the Jatropha plant, says it is expanding its operation into India. Better known as SG Biofuels, the company has amassed a huge library of DNA and genome information about Jatropha, so it can design hybrid seeds to best fit the land, sun and growing patterns of different areas. “Our expansion into India marks a significant milestone for the company as we continue to expand our commercialization efforts,” SG Biofuels Chief Executive Officer Kirk Haney said. “Our ability to quickly develop and scale productive Jatropha plantations using elite, high performing material will play a significa... FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642789 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:00:04 +0100 4642789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4424450&cid=t_110468_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FbxEIYiZB3gI%2F Hello, everyone, and nice to see you again. Another wintry day here on the Pharmalot corporate campus where, as usual, we are doing our best to hustle the short people off to the school houses. And of course, we armed with a shovel and a cup of stimulation - our flavor today is Gingerbread - as we prepare for the next round of deadlines and meetings. We trust you are doing the same, yes? So here are some tidbits to help you get started. May your day be fruitful… Roche Returns Diabetes Drug To Ipsen Over Side Effects (Bloomberg News) Sanofi’s Multaq On Latest FDA Safety Probe List (Reuters) China Arrests 18 People For Making Fake Avastin (Shanghai Daily) Biogen Profit Falls But Tysabri Sales Were Up (Reuters) Former Pfizer Chemist Gambles On Biofuel (Biodiesel Magazine) Valeant ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4424450 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:08:26 +0100 4424450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577444&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fwood-biofuels-rapeseed-crops.html Wood is the focus of new research into biofuels, while removing toxins from other crops is important for biofuels and food supply. Forest fires and phosphorus are analysed while the route discovered to taken by aluminium through the aquatic foodchain might quell some pollutant fears. This week’s column on SpectroscopyNOW.com: What’s wood worth? – X-ray technique confirms the properties of catalysts used to make biofuels derived from a potentially sustainable woody source, lignocellulose. Spectral statistics study on toxic crops – Some crops contain natural toxins that are usually removed during processing and cooking. Now a statistical analysis of visible and near-infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy has demonstrated how they can be quantified alongside oil and protein ... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577444 Wed, 19 May 2010 10:25:14 +0100 3577444 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2757807&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fbiofuels-vs-fossil-fuels.html Biofuels are not much better than fossil fuels in terms of the impact on atmospheric pollution levels and effects on climate change, according to Mark Jacobson professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. This is especially true when making claims about the sustainability of biofuels in comparison with hydrogen fuel cells and battery-driven electric vehicles charged up using solar, wind, tidal or other truly renewable energy sources. To quote from his web page, the main goal of Jacobson’s research is to… …understand physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the atmosphere better in order to address atmospheric problems, such as climate change and urban air pollution, with improved scientific insight and more accurate predictive tools. He also eval... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2757807 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:00:19 +0100 2757807 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2232792&cid=t_110468_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=2167712&cid=t_110468_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2FCAIJslFGq0M%2F Postia placenta genome is now published in early edition of PNAS.   Brown rotting fungi are import part of the cellulose degrading ecology of the forest as well (hopefully) providing some enzymes that will help in the ligin to biofuels process. Brown rotters break down cellulose but cannot break down lignin or lignocellulose while white rotters (like the previously sequenced Phanerochaete chrysosporium) are able to break down the lignin.  This fungus was chosen for sequencing as it is another potentially helpful fungus in the war on sugars (turning them into fuels) including recently published Trichoderma reesei and 1st basidiomycete genome Phanerochaete (all incidentally with the Diego Martinez as first author - go Diego!). It is also helpful to contrast the white and brown rotters t... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2167712 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:29:42 +0100 2167712 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1883385&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fat-davis-today-chris-somerville-on.html Quick Post Today --- For THose Interested in Biofuels --- you might be interested in thisDistinguished LecturerDr. Chris SomervilleDirector, Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)Presents On:“Cellulosic Biofuels”UC Davis ARC Ballroom October 16, 2008, 3:00-4:00 PMThis is from the "Tree of Life" blog ( http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com ) of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate at the University of California, Davis.. (Source: The Tree of Life) The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1883385 Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:36:00 +0100 1883385 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1488301&cid=t_110468_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F302815550%2F (Photo credit: www.marinebio.org)  At the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Bonn nearly 200 countries agreed on measures to protect the world’s most threatened wildlife.  They pledged: 1. To set up a deep-sea nature reserve and increase by tens of millions of hectares the area of land protected (the resulting protected area would be twice the size of Germany). 2. To ban experiments to boost plankton growth to reverse climate change, because of the potential risks to other animals. 3. To set global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been blamed for deforestation. But environmentalists said the progress achieved at the conference was still failing the UN Millennium Development Goal, which aims to “substantially reduce” biodiversi... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1488301 Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:05:58 +0100 1488301 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1480730&cid=t_110468_131_f&fid=35005&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Ffungalcompgenomics%2F%7E3%2F301039262%2F I found the headline today, "Biofuels: Fungus Use Improves Corn-to-ethanol Process" and I was curious to find out what fungus they were talking about in the article. It turns out that researchers at Iowa State University found that Rhizopus microsporus is able to grow off part of the leftovers of ethanol production called thin stillage. The reason this is so exciting is explained below: (Rhizopus sporangium, picture taking during PMB 110L @ UC Berkeley) The fuel is recovered by distillation, but there are about six gallons of leftovers for every gallon of fuel that's produced. Those leftovers, known as stillage, contain solids and other organic material. Most of the solids are removed by centrifugation and dried into distillers dried grains that are sold as livestock feed, primarily for ... Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1480730 Fri, 30 May 2008 06:09:17 +0100 1480730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1277915&cid=t_110468_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F245527067%2F   Geneticist Craig Venter has announced that he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.  He disclosed his potentially world-changing “fourth-generation fuel” project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in California. Among the audience were Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page. Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step, Venter says, is to re-engineer existing life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste.  Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste. Venter’s team is using synthetic chromosomes to modify organisms that already exist, not making new life.  The limiting part of the equati... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1277915 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:08:05 +0100 1277915 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=713194&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F07%2Ffishing-for-biofuels.html Well, it sounds a bit crazy but amazingly it turns out to be true. I originally overheard this at a recent conference on biofuels where some venture capitalists hosted a lunch to discuss new possible sources of biofuel production. And a representative of a major international fishing company said they had been approached by a small Pacific Island nation promoting the following idea. The plan is to harvest ALL biomass in their territorial waters surrounding the island and to turn this biomass into fuel. The way they see it, fish, seaweed, algae, and other organisms contain vast reservoirs of material that if processes efficiently could become a significant new source for ethanol production. The questions they were asking related to how much it would cost to simply design giant nets that cou... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=713194 Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:48:00 +0100 713194 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=683270&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fscrap-food-to-energy-here-we-come.html Well, congrats to Martin Wu, who is a Project Scientist at Davis in my group for getting his pet project approved as a new Community Sequencing Proposal through the Joint Genome Institute. In this project (see the MIT technology review article here)Martin and Ruihong Zhang a Prof. at Davis are going to do some sequencing of microbes that like in Dr. Zhang's biogas reactors.From the MIT article:"Sequencing these organisms will give us a better idea of who the players are so we can better control the conditions or improve the design to further improve conversion of waste into biogas," says Ruihong Zhang, the UC Davis bioengineer who developed the system.and"We want to compare what kind of microbes are there at different conditions and try to figure out why one [set of conditions] works bette... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=683270 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:57:00 +0100 683270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=525744&cid=t_110468_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F04%2Fscientist-reveals-secret-of-ocean-its.html I have gotten this story from a million people (since April 1) and figured someone had to put it out there on the web ...Scientist Reveals Secret of the Ocean: It's HimBy NICHOLAS WADE Published: April 1, 2007 Maverick scientist J. Craig Venter has done it again. It was just a few years ago that Dr. Venter announced that the human genome sequenced by Celera Genomics was in fact, mostly his own. And now, Venter has revealed a second twist in his genomic self-examination. Venter was discussing his Global Ocean Voyage, in which he used his personal yacht to collect ocean water samples from around the world. He then used large filtration units to collect microbes from the water samples which were then brought back to his high tech lab in Rockville, MD where he used the same methods that were ... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=525744 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:51:00 +0100 525744