Immortality Medicine

Background:
A solid-state anaerobic digestion method is used to produce biogas from various solid wastes in China but the efficiency of methane production requires constant improvement. The diversity and abundance of relevant microorganisms play important roles in methanogenesis of biomass. The next-generation high-throughput pyrosequencing platform (Roche/454 GS FLX Titanium) provides a powerful tool for the discovery of novel microbes within the biogas-generating microbial communities.
Results:
To improve the power of our metagenomic analysis, we first evaluated five different protocols for extracting total DNA from biogas-producing mesophilic solid-state fermentation materials and then chose two high-quality protocols for a full-scale analysis. The characterization of both sequencing reads and assembled contigs revealed that the most prevalent microbes of the fermentation materials are derived from Clostridiales (Firmicutes), which contribute to degrading both protein and cellulose. Other important bacterial species for decomposing fat and carbohydrate are Bacilli, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes (belonging to Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, respectively). The dominant bacterial species are from six genera: Clostridium, Aminobacterium, Psychrobacter, Anaerococcus, Syntrophomonas, and Bacteroides. Among them, abundant Psychrobacter species, which produce low temperature-adaptive lipases, and Anaerococcus species, which have weak fermentation capabilities, were identified for the first time in biogas fermentation. Archaea, represented by genera Methanosarcina, Methanosaeta and Methanoculleus of Euryarchaeota, constitute only a small fraction of the entire microbial community. The most abundant archaeal species include Methanosarcina barkeri fusaro, Methanoculleus marisnigri JR1, and Methanosaeta theromphila, and all are involved in both acetotrophic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis.
Conclusions:
The identification of new bacterial genera and species involved in biogas production provides insights into novel designs of solid-state fermentation under mesophilic or low-temperature conditions.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/3

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Jakub Kanvica’s Anatomical Interpretation of a Poem

Posted: January 14, 2013 at 8:01 pm

Jakub Konvica anatomy alphabet inspired by Czech writer and poet Karel Hynek Mácha

Brno based graphic designer and artist, Jakub Kanvica created this illustrated alphabet inspired by the famous Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha and his poem May.

Jakub explains his work,

Inspired by the famous Czech writer and poet Karel Hynek Mácha and his poem ‘May’. I created an illustrated alphabet, in which every character illustrates words which appear in the poem. Afterwards, I cut the alphabet to pieces and rearranged them into new characters, which now represent the concrete stories.

I think he did a beautiful job incorporating anatomy into the letters. I especially love anatomical heart and vessels coming off to form the letter ‘Q.’

[sent to us via our Facebook page by Margin Walker]

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/4_BIXdUI9jM/

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Running hot and cold – but which will freeze first?

Posted: January 14, 2013 at 2:37 pm

Over the last few months, the RSC has been running a competition, asking people to try and explain the Mpemba effect – why does hot water freeze faster than cold water?

The effect has puzzled scientists throughout history, but was most recently brought to light again in the 1960s by Eristo Mpemba, a student from Tanzania who challenged the received wisdom of his teachers and ended up writing a paper on the phenomenon with a local university professor, Denis Osborne.

Over 22,000 people from 122 countries submitted their theories and potential explanations for the effect, ranging from the hare-brained and humorous to more thorough and considered arguments. These entries were then whittled down to 11 by an international panel of judges and a public vote.

On Friday of last week, the RSC held an awards ceremony to announce the winner. Mpemba himself flew in from Tanzania to attend, and Osborne also joined the gathering at Burlington House in London.

And the winner? Nikola Bregovic, a PhD student in physical chemistry at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Not satisfied with theory and conjecture, Bregovic took to both the library and the lab, performing his own experiments and research to try and work out which of the many factors proposed to cause the Mpemba effect were significant.

You can read his submission in full in this paper, but it appears that the biggest factor affecting whether hot water will freeze faster than cold water is the degree to which the water can be supercooled – cooled below its nominal freezing point without actually freezing. Under certain conditions, it appears that heating the water can raise the nucleation temperature of the water, meaning that it effectively freezes at a higher temperature than the cold water. Convection – which will be more pronounced in the hot water – also plays a part, and the underlying fundamental problems underline the complexity of water’s chemistry. As Bregovic says in his conclusion, ‘Once again this small, simple molecule amazes and intrigues us with its magic.’

And how will he spend the £1000 prize money? A night out with his supporters and labmates to celebrate, and a trip to the mountains in the spring with the leftovers.