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Saving The Sumatran Rhino | Earth Wise

January 2, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest and most ancient rhino species and is the only surviving species with hair. It is critically endangered. Because of poaching and habitat destruction, there are fewer than 50 of them left in the wild and those are scattered in the rainforests of Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo. Mating encounters between surviving males and females are increasingly rare.

The last male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia died in 2019 but cell samples from that individual are the basis of an ambitious effort in bioengineering.

Researchers from the Max Delbruck Center in Germany are taking skin cells from the deceased rhino and turning them into stem cells. The hope is to use these stem cells to derive egg and sperm cells to be the basis of assisted reproduction. Fertilization would take place in a petri dish. The resultant embryos would then be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers.

The researchers have reported success generating induced pluripotent stem cells or IPS cells from the rhino skin samples. IPS cells are able to divide indefinitely and can transform into any cell type in the body.

The next step is to try to cultivate primordial germ cells – the precursors of eggs and sperm.

This work is going on because it is increasingly difficult to preserve the Sumatran rhino population by gathering together remaining individuals in wildlife Reserves. Females that have not been pregnant for a long time often become infertile because of cyst growth on their reproductive organs, and some are just too old to bear young.

It may take extraordinary efforts like these to save these animals from extinction.

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A second chance for the Sumatran rhino

Photo, posted April 30, 2008, courtesy of Willem V. Strien via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Turning Plastic Into Protein | Earth Wise

November 18, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Our planet is choking on plastic. According to the United Nations, 79% of the 6.3 billion tons of plastic produced every year accumulates in landfills. Half of all plastic produced is actually designed to be used just once and thrown away. But plastic is not only accumulating on land. In fact, the world’s oceans are projected to contain more plastic by weight than fish by the year 2050.

According to new research, solving the plastic waste issue could help address another prominent global issue: hunger. A multidisciplinary team of engineers, chemists, and biologists led by researchers from Michigan Tech University has developed a process to break plastics down to be recycled into useful products, including edible protein powder.

The research team’s process converts plastic into compounds using heat and a reactor that deconstructs the material’s polymer chains. The oil-like substance is then fed to a community of oil-eating bacteria. The bacteria grow rapidly on the oily diet, producing more bacterial cells composed of roughly 55% protein. This majority-protein byproduct is then dried out and turned into an edible powder. The end result doesn’t look like plastic at all. In fact, it resembles a yeast byproduct that comes from brewing beer.

This research is funded by an award from the US Department of Defense. The DoD often deploys soldiers in areas where access to food is challenging. Converting plastic to protein could be part of a solution to that problem.

While eating something that began as plastic might take some getting used to, it could be part of the solution to both plastic pollution and global hunger.

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Turning Trash Into Treasure: The Plastic to Protein Powder Solution

Beat Plastic Pollution

Photo, posted February 2, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Environmental DNA | Earth Wise

August 5, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Marine protected areas are sections of the ocean where governments place limits on human activity. They are intended to provide long-term protection to important marine and coastal ecosystems. MPAs are important because they can protect depleted, threatened, rare, and endangered species and populations.

In January 2020, the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean created one of the world’s largest marine protected areas. The Palau National Marine Sanctuary covers 80% of the country’s economic zone and prohibits all extractive activity like fishing and mining over a 183,000 square mile area in order for the island nation to ensure its food security and grow its economy in the face of climate change.

The Marine Sanctuary is an ambitious enterprise. The question is how Palau can evaluate whether and how well it is working?

A team of scientists from Stanford University and Palau-based colleagues are making use of Environmental DNA – or eDNA – technology to monitor the large-scale marine protected area. eDNA is the cells, waste, viruses, and microorganisms that plants and animals leave behind. Samples of marine eDNA effectively provide a fingerprint of the organisms that have recently passed through the water in a given area. This gives scientists a way to assess an ecosystem’s biodiversity and keep track of the types of species inhabiting a specific area. Using eDNA, it is possible to keep track of all the organisms that live below the surface and learn about things we can’t even see.

The team has embarked on a program of periodic sampling of the waters off Palau and hope to be able to monitor the results of establishing the Marine Sanctuary.

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eDNA: Bringing biodiversity to the surface

Photo, posted June 12, 2013, courtesy of Gregory Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Progress On Perovskite Solar Cells | Earth Wise

August 2, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

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Perovskites are semiconductors with a specific crystal structure. Their properties make them well suited for making solar cells. They can be manufactured at room temperature, using much less energy than it takes to make the silicon-based solar cells widely used today. As a result, perovskite solar panels would be cheaper and more sustainable to produce. Manufacturing silicon solar cells takes a lot of energy because silicon is forged at around 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, perovskites can be made flexible and transparent, making it possible to use them in ways unavailable with silicon solar technology.

But unlike silicon, perovskites are very fragile. The early solar cells made from perovskites in 2009 and 2012 lasted for only minutes. Lots of potential, but little practicality.

Recently, Princeton Engineering researchers have developed the first perovskite solar cell with a commercially viable lifetime, which is a major breakthrough. The team projects that the device can perform above industry standards for about 30 years, which is much more than the 20 years designated as a viability threshold for commercial cells.

The research team has developed an ultra-thin capping layer between two of the layers of a perovskite solar cell. The layer is just few atoms thick but has been demonstrated to dramatically increase the durability of the device.

There is great potential for the new solar cell technology. It has efficiency to compete with silicon cells but can be tuned for specific applications and can be manufactured locally with low energy inputs. If successfully commercialized, the result will be solar panels that are cheaper, more efficient, and more flexible than what are available today.

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Once seen as fleeting, a new solar tech shines on and on

Photo, posted January 8, 2020, courtesy of David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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Safer Ways To Be Blue | Earth Wise

May 5, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Creating blue fabric has always been desirable for people. It has never been easy, but the original way to do it – by using indigo from plants – has been around for 6,000 years. Natural indigo is a rare commodity, often referred to as blue gold. In the 19th century, synthetic indigo was developed and ultimately replaced the natural substance.

Synthetic indigo dye is not an environmentally friendly substance. In order to get it to adhere to fabrics, substances called mordants are required. These are commonly made from metals like chromium and aluminum, are generally toxic, and kill off plants exposed to factory wastewater, destroy ecosystems, and poison drinking water. The dye itself is slow to decompose and is bad for the environment.

Recently, an organic chemist in Brazil named Erick Bastos has figured out a new way to produce blue dye using, of all things, a pigment from beets. By extracting the pigment and tweaking its molecular pattern, he has managed to transform the red color of the pigment to a brilliant blue.

Beet roots contain pigments called betalains and just a tiny amount of beetroot juice can render a lot of dye. By mixing these pigments with a couple of ingredients, a chemical reaction occurred, and the color transformed from red, to yellow, then green, and finally blue.

Testing so far on human liver cells, retinal cells, and developing zebrafish has revealed no toxicity. The results suggest that the new dye – dubbed BeetBlue – is safe. Further testing is needed to know if it is truly safe and whether it will last in the wash. Meanwhile, Professor Bastos is not patenting the dye and hopes it will provide a better way to be blue.

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How Do You Make a Less Toxic Blue Dye? Start With Red Beets

Photo, posted November 7, 2005, courtesy of Lain Buchanan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New Kind Of Antibiotic | Earth Wise

March 10, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and growing problem for public health. Over time, more and more types of bacteria have become resistant to known antibiotics making it very difficult to treat various kinds of infections.

A new group of antibiotics with a unique approach to attacking bacteria has been discovered at McMaster University in Canada, representing a promising new clinical approach in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

The newly found corbomycin and the lesser-known complestatin have a never-before-seen way to kill bacteria, namely, breaking the function of the bacterial cell wall. Bacteria have a wall around the outside of their cells that gives them shape and is a source of strength. Antibiotics like penicillin kill bacteria by preventing building of the wall, but the new antibiotics work by doing the opposite – they prevent the wall from being broken down. Breaking down the cell wall is critical for cells to divide. In order for bacteria to grow and spread, they need to expand and divide. By completely blocking the breakdown of the wall, it is as if the bacterium is trapped in a prison and can’t expand or grow.

The researchers demonstrated in mice that these new antibiotics can block infections caused by the drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is a group of bacteria that can cause many serious infections.

The researchers believe this new approach can be applied to other antibiotics and lead to the discovery of new ones with different mechanisms of action. This study found one completely new antibiotic, but since then, they have found a few others in the same family that have this same new mechanism.

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