illuminating science

Today’s post is from guest blogger Jenny Riesz, PhD researcher in biophyisics, working on determining the structure of the skin pigment melanin.

I went to a fascinating talk today by Ben Hankamer, a researcher at the UQ Institute of Molecular Bioscience. He leads a group that has been looking at renewable technologies and global warming.

The statistics are absolutely terrifying. His basic message was that EVEN IF we act RIGHT NOW to the maximum of our ability, all indications suggest that we are looking at massive global changes - extinction of something like 25% of all the plant and animal species on earth, huge sea level rises, and frightening climate change. And if we don’t act now then god help us. There are indications that we are now at a turning point where carbon dioxide levels are having a positive feedback effect - rising global temperatures and droughts mean that plants are dying and actually contributing more carbon dioxide than they can absorb.

Add to this the fact that fossil fuels are running out. Many statistics say that coal will last for a few hundred years but this figure is based on current usage. And our energy needs are rising every year; India and China, particularly, have massively increasing energy consumption. Put this together, and our fossil fuels, ALL our fossil fuels, are set to run out in about 100yrs. So we are looking at massive changes WITHIN OUR LIFETIME.

All of this was presented in a calm and completely scientific manner that chilled me to the bone.

As a result of their studies they have decided that solar energy has to be the answer to our energy crisis, and that biomass is the most feasible way to harness the energy of the sun. They are developing a technology that uses algae to produce hydrogen from sunlight. In photosynthesis plants split water (H2O) into oxygen and hydrogen. They hydrogen (protons) is usually then used by the plant to make food (through a long chain of events). This group has made a mutant type of cell that doesn’t process the hydrogen in the same way, but instead releases it as a gas. The cell then dies (because it has no food), but in the process it has released all the energy in it that originally came from the sun. So one could imagine a system where you grow algal cells in a tank in the sun, let them absorb lots of energy, then extract that energy as hydrogen.

As an added bonus, they’re using bacteria that grow in salt water (which is far more abundant than fresh water), which means that this process could actually become a method for desalination of water (when you recombine the oxygen and hydrogen to make fresh water!). It’s a beautifully elegant idea that looks like it really has a chance.

And I really do hope it DOES have a chance. Global warming and the energy crisis scares the hell out of me. We are going to see MASSIVE changes within our lifetime. It’s our choice whether we make the best of it early, or wait until we have no choices left.

For some ideas on how you can make less of an energy impact on the world, see:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

To read more about Ben Hankamer’s research:
http://www.imb.uq.edu.au/?page=11700