Author: Jo Louise Seltzer

“How do you milk algae for their oil?  Tiny milkmaids with very tiny tweezers.”

Dr. Richard Sayre, head of the Enterprise Biofuels Insitute at the Danforth Plant Biology Center has a whole comedy shtick to ease the listener into the serious topic of algae’s oil eventually becoming a major source of transportation and other fuels.  His laboratory has devised a system to extract the oil (up to 50% of their weight) from algae without damaging them, so that the same organism can replenish its oil droplets again and again.

As the country scrambles to find economical substitutes for fossil fuels, the algae most of us think of as “pond scum” have emerged as a potentially major source of raw materials.  And when it comes to research on these one-celled organisms, St. Louis has become a key center for basic research.  Last year, both of the Department of Energy’s main grants for algae research were granted to St. Louis institutions; $15 million went to the Danforth Center, and $20 million to Washington University.

In addition, $44 million in ‘stimulus’ funds plus an additional $16 million from industry is being used to establish the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts  (NAABB), a consortium of 24 companies, universities and national laboratories whose goal is to make fuel and other bioproducts from algae commercially viable as quickly as possible.  The Danforth Center heads the consortium, with Sayre as lead scientist and Dr. Jose Olivares as executive director.  The aim is to explore different approaches to solving problems, and then to develop the most promising ones. For example, ‘milking algae’ by the process to be described later in this article will be evaluated against other approaches to growing algae and harvesting their oil.

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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.

This is a tale of the city goose and the country goose.

Many of us become aware of the city goose as we begin to enjoy the spring weather in our favorite local park.  The city goose—AKA the Canada goose—has become a nuisance in many urban green spaces.

The country goose — aka the snow goose — minds his own business. For us, these geese are mostly out of sight and out of mind as they pass through in the late winter and early spring. But they have become a threat to the Arctic environment where they hatch their goslings.

 

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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.

The excitement was palpable when four Washington U. faculty members got together to explain just why it is so important to go back to the Moon and gather new rocks to analyze.

“The Moon is like a storage locker of early solar system history,” explained Paul Carpenter, director of the microprobe laboratory in Earth Sciences. “The youngest rock on the Moon is older than almost all the rocks on Earth.”

Professors Brad Jolliff and Randy Korotev elaborated. “The Earth is an active planet, with plate tectonics, mountains, oceans, and volcanos—things are always changing.  But the Moon has been sitting there like a ‘witness plate’ for 4.5 billion years, being acted upon. If you look at the Moon and realize that all those craters have resulted from collisions with other bodies, and if you consider the common origin of the Earth and its Moon, you must conclude that the young Earth was similarly bombarded. “

 

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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.

The Mississippi River that flows by our town may get cleaner faster as a result of a recent Environmental Protection Agency decision. In fact, the federal government is requiring Missouri to make the river along its entire 195-mile stretch on the Missouri border suitable for “whole body contact” — meaning it should be both fishable and swimmable.

This decision does not mean that we can take a dip as soon as warm weather arrives. A Mississippi River in which folks would want to swim is a long-term goal that presents great challenges to the state and the city. Everyone will be asked to play a role in developing solutions, including businesses large and small and even homeowners.

In late October, the EPA ordered the Missouri Clean Water Commission to adopt more stringent water quality standards for the 28.6 miles of the Mississippi that flows past St. Louis. The decision came in the wake of a suit filed by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. That means that the area will have to get a better grip on handling stormwater runoff that overwhelms the region’s sewer systems.

 

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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.

The future of wild animals — among them the mighty elephant, the lowly hellbender salamander and the American burying beetle — will be the topic of discussion when the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums meets this week in St. Louis.

Leading conservationists, including keynote speaker Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, will join about 200 heads of zoos and aquariums from all over the world at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. They will meet for two days of presentations followed by work on plans to implement the organization’s updated conservation strategy.The event is hosted by the St. Louis Zoo.

For at least a century, the association’s members have emphasized conservation and education, as well as providing inviting places to visit. But in recent years, in the face of a human population explosion, climate change and growing public awareness of the importance of biodiversity, their mission has evolved.

 

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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.