Biofuels

As the world notices global warming, we start making better decisions and try to change what we do for the better. Early vehicles were shown to have run on peanut oil and the like, but people found petroleum was much easier to gather and find. But now the prices for petroleum gas are rising and more and more people are turning back to biofuel. I think that biofuels and natural, environmental friendly ways of powering our cars and other machines would be accepted and purchased by all. Biofuels have to be at least eighty percent renewable, this will contribute greatly to the earth and its atmosphere, because there won't be as much waste in the air, "Using straight vegetable oil for fuel can lower greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 100 percent, greatly reducing air pollution". Biofuels can me made from many plants, including: corn, peanuts, coconuts, and sugar cane. Biofuel is the best option because it does not create toxic waste. It also produces carbon dioxide for the plants to grow and it becomes a cycle where everything is reused and no new toxins have to be made. There are many benefits to using biofuels, but it takes a lot of time and effort to make this kind of fuel. So for this kind of power to be manufactured, people have to put their own comfort aside and help extend the life span of the earth.

Eye of Science, electron microscopy

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Looking at Proteins

Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Rice University have figured out how to look at and identify the protein structure. This breakthrough will help future scientists locate the active sites being used in cancer and other diseases. The information has been put online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). It uses math algorithms and X-ray crystallography. The math part of it defines all the positions the protein can flex or bend. X-ray crystallography "a technique in which protein crystals are bombarded with X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern that reveals the precise three-dimensional arrangement of every atom in the protein". The head researcher Jianpeng Ma expects this technique to help with a better understanding of supramolecular (more complex then a molecule) complexes that have limited information. William Lipscomb of Harvard University, one of the inventors of X-ray crystallography said the new successes involving this X-ray are phenomenal and that this technique of mapping out proteins has been the largest advancement in X-rays in two decades.

Since proteins are made out of strings of amino acids they tend to move a lot. But the part of the protein that moves the most is the part that plays the biggest role in the protein, for example, the place where an enzyme catalyzes a reaction. This is problem because the protein usually keeps moving and if you take an X-ray of a moving object it comes out fuzzy, so it is still a diffuculty to map out the vital part of the protein.