Cars Could Run On Recycled Newspaper

Here's one way that old-fashioned newsprint beats the Internet. Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed "TU-103," that can use paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline. They are currently experimenting with old editions of the Times Picayune, New Orleans' venerable daily newspaper, with great success.

TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.

"Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many," said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in David Mullin's lab in Tulane's Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. "In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year."

Mullin's lab first identified TU-103 in animal droppings, cultivated it and developed a method for using it to produce butanol. A patent is pending on the process.

"Most important about this discovery is TU-103's ability to produce butanol directly from cellulose," explained Mullin.

He added that TU-103 is the only known butanol-producing clostridial strain that can grow and produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, which kills other butanol-producing bacteria. Having to produce butanol in an oxygen-free space increases the costs of production.

As a biofuel, butanol is superior to ethanol (commonly produced from corn sugar) because it can readily fuel existing motor vehicles without any modifications to the engine, can be transported through existing fuel pipelines, is less corrosive, and contains more energy than ethanol, which would improve mileage.

"This discovery could reduce the cost to produce bio-butanol," said Mullin. "In addition to possible savings on the price per gallon, as a fuel, bio-butanol produced from cellulose would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide and smog emissions in comparison to gasoline, and have a positive impact on landfill waste."

 by "environment clean generations"

How About A Space Vacation?

Russia luxury hotel in orbit will start at $1 million a week. A Russian company says it'll launch a luxury hotel into orbit. The space resort will offer views of Earth, sightseeing flights around the moon, and, of course, zero-gravity cabins.

The dream of space flight, formerly possible only for professional astronauts and a handful of adventurous multimillionaires, may be on the verge of becoming (almost) affordable for the mere millionaire.

A Russian-based company, Orbital Technologies, has announced plans to launch a seven-room luxury hotel into orbit, about 220 miles from the Earth, within five years.

A five-day vacation package will cost under $1 million, including up to three months of specialized training, return flight aboard a Russian Soyuz or one of the commercial space planes that will soon be operational, three nights in one of the hotel's zero-gravity cabins, and a sightseeing flight around the moon.

If that still sounds expensive, consider that the last "space tourist", Cirque du Soleil founder Guy LaLiberte, paid upwards of $25 million for his tourist jaunt to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft just two years ago.

"Space tourism is a real and fast-growing business," Sergei Kostenko, head of Orbital Technologies, said last week. "Whoever builds the first new spaceship now will reap big dividends."

Conditions aboard the planned Commercial Space Station (CSS) will be more comfortable than official astronauts enjoy in the line of duty, but there will still be no shower (sponge baths only), guests will have to use vacuum toilets, and all meals will be specially prepared "space food," measured out and packed before launch.

Absolutely no alcoholic beverages will be served, but there will be Internet access and a full array of satellite TV channels (see the proposed hotel here).

"Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station," said Mr. Kostenko. "A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through large portholes. The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space."

Up to seven people will be able to stay for up to six months, with a choice of vertical or horizontal sleeping pods. In future, the hotel might be used as a jumping-off point for further tourist adventures, such as trips to the moon.

The company says it will be building the CSS in partnership with Energia, the state-owned former Soviet company responsible for developing the Soyuz and Progress space vehicles, the USSR's Mir space station and the Russian-made components of the current International Space Station.

The project reflects the vastly improved fortunes of Russia's official space program, which just a few years ago was regarded as little more than a "rocket taxi" to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS.

Nowadays Russian space scientists are working on a variety of ambitious projects, which include a manned spaceflight to Mars by 2030, a robotic spaceplane to rival the US Airforce's X-37B, and an orbiting radio-telescope, launched last month , that will deliver images of the universe's most remote corners with 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new CSS would be placed in orbit just 100 miles from the ISS, which could make it possible for international astronaut crews to use the hotel when they want a bit of R & R, or in an emergency.

"There is a possibility for the ISS crew to leave their station for several days. For example, if a required maintenance procedure or a real emergency were to occur, without the return of the ISS crew to Earth, habitants could use the CSS as a safe haven," Alexei Krasnov, an official of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, told journalists.

by "environment clean generations"

Earth-Generated Panspermia

Jupiter's Moon Europa A new simulation found that high-velocity particles ejected from Earth could make their way to the Jupiter system, where they could conceivably land on a moon like Ganymede or Europa, shown here. Europa is thought to harbor a massive ocean.

Proponents of panspermia theory say life on Earth came from elsewhere, hitching a ride on rocks sheared from other worlds or from migratory asteroids. But what if life did originate here and then it left, hitching a ride on Earth-departed rocks? Earth could seed other worlds, instead of the other way around. A new analysis says the rocks could conceivably make it as far as Jupiter.

 

Scientists have found several meteorites that originated on Mars or the moon, after being ejected in asteroid collisions, forcefully thrown into space and finally arriving on Earth. It makes sense that the opposite could be true, and that after mega-collisions, some pieces of Earth could be thrown toward Mars or Venus.

But most simulations suggest very few Earth pieces would reach the fourth planet, because they would have a hard time overcoming the gravitational pull of both Earth and the sun. Lots of the ejected particles would actually wind up back on Earth, according to previous studies. Some scientists have even suggested these refugee particles would “re-seed” their home planet.

Now researchers in Mexico have a new simulation, and they say plenty of Earth bits would indeed make it to Mars — and beyond, all the way to the Jovian system. Mauricio Reyes-Ruiz and colleagues at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico ran computer simulations of 10,242 test particles, following their predicted paths for 30,000 years. That’s about as long as scientists think life could survive in space, the authors note.

They ran simulations at five different ejection velocities, from 6.97 miles per second to 10.2 miles per second. They found that at faster velocities, particles are more likely to reach Jupiter than Mars, because of their great speed relative to Mars’ low gravitational pull. The particles also reach Jupiter more quickly, with half making the trip in 10,000 years, the authors write. In one simulation, just one particle reaches Mars, and it takes between 25,000 and 30,000 years to get there.

Even more bizarre, many particles end up traveling past 40 AU, which the authors describe as leaving the solar system. 

This is all theoretical, of course — the ejection velocity and the particles’ trajectory would be determined by variables like the size and velocity of the incoming object, not to mention the collision location relative to the spin of the Earth. But it’s an interesting concept — as KFC points out over at Technology Review, if life persists in space longer than astrobiologists think, life from Earth could still be speeding toward distant worlds.

 by "environment clean generations"