Joby Jacob, Ph.D.

Gene therapy involves substituting or introducing a therapeutic gene to replace or accompany the defective one. Many previous attempts at gene therapy have utilized retroviruses, however the main pitfall of retroviruses is that scientists cannot control where the therapeutic gene will be inserted. This is a huge drawback as the therapeutic gene might be inserted in a potentially useful or necessary part of the genome, which could lead to even more genetic mutation. by ICSident ( CC License)  via Wikimedia Recently, a team of scientists led by Dr Holmes and Dr High used a zinc finger nuclease to repair hemophilia in mice . Zinc finger nucleases don’t actually exist in nature and are engineered from a fusion of a Zinc finger domain and a nuclease. Zinc Finger domains are typically found in transcription factors (proteins which help to control the rate of transcription of RNA from DNA) because they recognize and interact with very specific sections of DNA. Nucleases on the other h

The fermentation of the natural sugars (and starches) in grains and grapes yields beer and wine, and this has remained essentially unchanged for almost 10,000 years.  Distilling these products yields pure ethanol. An E-85 (85% Ethanol Fuel Pump) By Mariordo Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz (Own work) [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons Recently, there's been much ado about Ethanol subsidies in Congress . Corn producers are very keen on keeping these subsidies intact,  of course. However, utilizing a good portion of our food grain for fuel production probably isn't a long term solution as it will serve to increase food prices. In the production of our food crops, we have several tons of secondary material - such as corn stalks, which essentially go to waste. This material, is indigestible by yeast because it mostly consists of lignin . Furthermore, plants like  switchgrass  cannot be used for large scale ethanol production because most of the carbohydrate it contains is

Recently, I read about two major scientific advancements in the field of alternative fuels. The first involved the production of hydrogen, and the other is a major breakthrough in the production of cellulosic Ethanol. In this post, I’ll talk about the hydrogen production breakthrough. Hydrogen Filling Station, Iceland. By Jóhann Heiðar Árnason (Own work) [ CC BY-SA 3.0  or  GFDL ], via Wikimedia Commons Others have already demonstrated “artificial photosynthesis” where light is used to cleave water into hydrogen from oxygen. A so called hydrogen economy would be ideal because its main byproduct would be the production of water vapor as opposed to carbon dioxide or particulate pollution. Artificial photosynthesis would allow for the cheap production of hydrogen and is one part of many missing parts in converting into a hydrogen based economy. (Other problems include how to store hydrogen effectively, how to transport it and how to retrofit the existing infrastructure, includin

Recently I attended “ Climate Change, Science and Society: A Multidisciplinary Discussion ” hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences and arranged by Wiley WIRES Climate Change . By Victor Korniyenko (From Wiki.) [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons The speakers were: Stephen Rose, an economist with the Electric Power Research Institute , Lauren Chamblis of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station a science communications specialist and a former journalist, and David Rind, a NASA/GISS climate scientist emeritus. The interdisciplinary aspect of the talk was unique and this talk was well worth attending . The climate scientist David Rind, spoke about climate change in a way I hadn’t considered before. New models are now predicting an increase in temperature of 4 degrees. That may not seem like much he said, “But global temperatures were only 4 degrees lower when there was a 3 kilometer thick glacier where we sit right now” (downtown Manhattan). Interestingly