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Ethanol Feedstock From Citrus Peel Waste

With the recent wild fluctuations in gasoline prices, there’s renewed interest in finding a cheaper way to fill up the gas tank. In 1992, Karel Grohmann, then research leader of the ARS Subtropical Products Laboratory in Winter Haven, Florida, began research on converting citrus peel waste into fuel ethanol. Citrus waste materials are rich in pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulosic polysaccharides, which can be hydrolyzed into sugars and fermented into alcohol.

Moondust’s Magnetic Charms

Thirty-plus years ago on the moon, Apollo astronauts made an important discovery: Moondust can be a major nuisance. The fine powdery grit was everywhere and had a curious way of getting into things. Moondust plugged bolt holes, fouled tools, coated astronauts’ visors and abraded their gloves. Very often while working on the surface, they had to stop what they were doing to clean their cameras and equipment using large–and mostly ineffective–brushes.

Sociologists find low self-esteem at 11 predicts drug dependency at 20

Every parent worries that his or her child may turn to drugs, or worse, become dependent on them, and a new Florida State University study indicates that parents of boys who have very low self-esteem and have friends who approve of drug and alcohol use may have good cause to worry.

Mediterranean region faces grim future

Mediterranean countries will suffer from increasingly saturated coastal development over the next 20 years if current trends continue, 63 million people will lack sufficient water and desertification will worsen rural poverty and biodiversity loss, according to the grim projections of a new United Nations-backed report.

Hints of Planet Birth Around Dead Star

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered new evidence that planets might rise up out of a dead star’s ashes. The infrared telescope surveyed the scene around a pulsar, the remnant of an exploded star, and found a surrounding disk made up of debris shot out during the star’s death throes. The dusty rubble in this disk might ultimately stick together to form planets.

Blind Mice Recover Visual Responses Using Protein from Green Algae

Nerve cells that normally are not light sensitive in the retinas of blind mice can respond to light when a green algae protein called channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is inserted into the cell membranes, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported study published in the April 6, 2006 issue of the journal Neuron. The study was conducted with mice that had been genetically bred to lose rods and cones, the light-sensitive cells in the retina. This condition is similar to the blinding disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in humans.

Thinner and younger

Can eating a low-calorie yet nutritionally balanced diet extend human life? Preliminary research suggests it might, so researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are launching a long-term study to find out.

Tiny particles may pose threat to liver cells

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are to study the effects of nanoparticles on the liver. In a UK first, the scientists will assess whether nanoparticles — already found in pollution from traffic exhaust, but also used in making household goods such as paint, sunblock, food, cosmetics and clothes– can cause damage to the cells of the liver.

Veggies inhibit growth of prostate cancer in mice with human tumors

Chemicals in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, watercress, cabbage and cauliflower, appear to stop human prostate cancer cells from growing in mice by affecting the expression of proteins, says a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute study.

Cohabiting is bad for women’s health – but not men’s

Women eat more unhealthy foods and tend to put on weight when they move in with a male partner, according to a new report by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. On the other hand, a man’s diet tends to become healthier when he starts cohabiting with a female partner – and her influence has a long-term positive impact.

Physics meets biology: Bridging the culture gap

Molecular biologists are deluged with data, and physicists, used to reducing complex systems to basic principles, might help to make sense of it all. But bringing the two disciplines together isn’t easy, says Jonathan Knight.

magnesium & metabolic syndrome

metabolic syndrome is almost as powerful a predictor of heart disease as smoking

Did Jesus walk on … ice?

The New Testament story describes Jesus walking on water in the Sea of Galilee, but according to a study led by Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof, it’s more likely that he walked on an isolated patch of floating ice. The study points to a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions for development of a unique, localized freezing phenomenon that Nof and his co-authors call “springs ice.”