Category Archives: Science Communication

Sewage Sludge, A Potential New Fertilizer?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

THE PROBLEM

The world’s population increases annually. With urban communities adapting to a more meat-based diet and competing for food supplies, agricultural demands are increasing exponentially. Rising agricultural demand results in the necessity for increased amount of high-quality fertilizers. Unfortunately, the main component of agricultural fertilizer is phosphorus: a dwindling non-renewable resource.

Red Phosphorus

Phosphorus, Source:Wikimedia Commons

If phosphorus was to deplete on a global basis (predicted to occur within the next 100 years), nations may succumb to pressure and resort to violence or isolationism to protect their own supply.

WHAT TO DO?

Before global conflict occurs, the world needs to find a new source of phosphorus that is both sustainable and renewable. Luckily, researchers believe they may have found a new source of phosphorus in sewage sludge.

WHAT IS SEWAGE SLUDGE?

SEWAGE_SLUDGE_SETTLES_ON_BOTTOM_OF_BEAKER._SEWAGE_TREATMENT_PLANT_-_NARA_-_543811[1]

Sewage Sludge, Source:Wikimedia Commons

Sewage sludge is the by-product of urban sewage waste produced after an incineration or combustion process. When dissolved in water, sewage sludge is a murky viscous material with floating small particles. Interestingly, sewage sludge has a diverse variety of micro-components where oxidized metals and semi-metals make up majority of the composition. The key fact to note is the high amount of oxidized Phosphorous contained within this substance.

HOW CAN SEWAGE SLUDGE HELP US

In the past, sewage sludge has been dumped into the ocean, leaked into agricultural lands before proper processing or used in construction process such as the formation of concrete. However, a new study conducted by researcher Hannes Herzel on January 15, 2016 has shown a potential recovery of over 19, 000 tons of phosphorus annually within sewage sludge that is commercially and agriculturally reusable. But, it appears that researchers do not yet have an efficient way of extracting phosphorus from sewage sludge due to limited bio-availability. Furthermore, it is not cost efficient in a lab setting to completely remove all other heavy metals and contaminants inside of sewage sludge in order to isolate phosphorus. Coincidentally, a Russian waste purification company seems to have found the solution.

The following is a YouTube demonstration of contemporary Sewage Sludge treatment in Rusecotech kindly provided by: Daniil Andreev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdrAO6plWOQ

After this treatment, the sewage sludge will be essentially free of dangerous heavy metals such Arsenic (As), Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn) and will also be detoxified. The resulting mixture will be safe to use as a fertilizer after further processing. In the words of Hannes Herzel, the treated product, “thus fulfill(s) the quality parameter for a P-fertilizer“.

Although the concept of reusing sewage sludge is still under development, the future of this technology is definitely promising in securing a reusable phosphorous source.

Posted By Ming Lun (Allan) Zhu

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

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There is Hope: Body Fat Transplant May Be Effective in Treating Rare Metabolic Diseases?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by | 4 comments

People who have rare metabolic diseases, such as Maple syrup urine disease depend highly on donor transplantation. But is there an alternative treatment if donors are low? Not to mention the high expenses of a transplant?

But… you might be wondering… what exactly is maple syrup urine disease and where does it get its name?

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is a rare disease because it follows an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance, one of the ways a disease can be passed down through families. This means patients inherit MSUD if both their parents have an abnormal gene.  MSUD  causes a defect in the way our body breaks down the three essential amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) follows a autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. Source: Wikipedia Commons

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) follows a autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. Source: Wikipedia Commons

It is characterized by the distinctive maple-syrup scent found early on in urine samples of infants. They are important because essential amino acids cannot be made from the body, so they must come directly from our diet. The defect causes these three amino acids and their by-products to build up in the body. As a result, MSUD patients need precisely monitored diets (measured to the very milligram!) to avoid consumption of these amino acids, while still obtaining the other essential amino acids the body needs.

If MSUD conditions are left untreated, they can lead to coma, seizures and even death before reaching three months in age.

Liver transplantation is shown to be effective in treating MSUD because the liver is composed of an abundance of enzymes which appear to normalize amino acid levels, sometimes even allowing patients to fully adopt their normal diets again.

So organ transplantation is usually the solution to metabolic diseases but because of the high demand, is there a more accessible alternative?

Noting the high activity of fat tissue relative to muscle tissue in the body, researchers from Penn State College of Medicine tested the effect of body fat transplantation with genetically engineered mice with MSUD. They transplanted two grams of fat into the mices’ back or abdomen and found that when they implanted fat into the mices’ back, the amino acid levels dropped greatly in the transplanted MSUD mice compared to non-transplanted MSUD mice.

Transplanting fat into the abdomen of the mice did more harm than good and caused inflammation in the process. The results of this study were recently published in the journal Molecular Genetics and Metabolism.

Their study concluded that the amount of fat injected had no effect on the results. So this must mean that there will be further experimentation with fat transplantation. Fat transplant can be an alternative to liver transplant because it may be a more efficient approach as it is relatively inexpensive and it may be easier to find donors.

Wayne and Chad’s personal account on their child living with MSUD: YouTube Preview Image
Posted on January 25, 2016 By Jenny U

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science Communicators, Science in the News

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Sperms join the racetrack- Team Spermbot!

Posted on January 18, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Humans are made to be fertile so that they can reproduce. However, many couples cannot have have children for various reasons, the main one being the inability of the sperm to reach the egg successfully. To aid fertility problems there are many pricy alternative fertility options but these have a very low success rate.

In order for a man and women to conceive, male sperm must swim down the female fallopian tubes and connect with the egg. However, some males have difficulties getting their little guys to make it all the way to the finish line. The sperm are usually fully fertile but have difficulties swimming. This is one of the leading problems of male infertility. To resolve this problem, a team of German researchers have invented the “spermbot“.

As published in Nano Letters, the spermbot is a tiny spiral metal helices that rotates and fits around the tail of the sperm. It is big enough to fit the tail but not too big that it goes over the head. The helix can be controlled using magnetic fields. The main purpose of this spermbot is to provide better motility to the sperm so they can reach the egg.

The Spermbot

The spermbot overview. Credit: American Chemical Society

The spermbot works in 4 steps: First, the hybrid micrometer is coupled with the sperm as coupling is the most efficient way for the microhelix to attach to the sperm without killing it. Second, the spermbot starts propelling it to where it to its destination. Third, it makes contact within the ovaries, which is where female reproduction takes place. Once this is completed the final step includes the release of the sperm from the spermbot. This 4 step process was shown to be a success by the German researchers in a petri dish. The petri dish was designed to mimic actual conditions the sperm would face inside a female’s body. This simple yet unique and innovative design could be life-changing for many infertile males as well as their spouses.

The following video gives an overview of the description of the spermbot and how it works.

 

Credit: American Chemical Society

The spermbot is on the brink of being an absolute genius invention, however it needs to be fully tested and all precautions need to be taken before it is put to use in humans. The spermbot could provide various risks for both males and females. The spermbot can be compared to artificial insemination, which is the only fertility option that deals with motility problems. Artificial insemination has a 30% success rate. Whereas the spermbot has a much higher chance of producing a better success rate because of its innovative design and the ability to control it through magnetics. Furthermore, artificial insemination is very invasive for hormonal females, whereas the spermbot provides a non-invasive entry in males. The risks of the spermbot can be controlled once they are identified, and once the risks are eliminated, the spermbot will thrive in the world of fertility.

 

 

Vanessa Sidhu

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Do Chimpanzees Trust Their Friends?

Posted on January 17, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Have you ever played a game of “trust fall”? Perhaps you were nervous as those behind you may not have been close friends. Trust is the cornerstone of a civilized society; one in which we can confidently rely on others to uphold their duties in maintaining mutually beneficial relationships.

Conversely,  self interest may cause individuals to disregard their moral obligations to others and use trust as a tool to get ahead. For this reason humans tend to put their trust in friends before strangers as to minimize their risk of danger – but what about animals?

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany wanted to know if Chimpanzees operated on the same principles. In their previous study, the researchers had acknowledged certain behaviors among the chimpanzees that were similar to human friendships.

If they could show that chimpanzees are selective with their trust, it may imply that trust, and other complex psychological behaviours have evolved from our common ancestors!

To put their theory to the test, Esther Hermann and Jan Engelmann conducted a study, observing closely fifteen chimpanzees from the Sweetwaters Sanctuary in Kenya, where most of them have been living for nearly twenty five years. They began by monitoring the interactions of smaller groups and even pairs of chimps during feeding and grooming times to determine which could be considered friends.

The experiment was set up in a way that would observe whether a chimpanzee would chose a low risk and relatively small reward option over a higher risk and greater reward option. Specifically, the experiment, which was replicated 12 times with both the chimp’s close ally and a stranger, looked like the following:

Two chimpanzees, A and B, are placed in separate rooms joined by a feeding mechanism that includes two ropes: a non-trust rope and a trust rope. The non-trust rope, if pulled, provides the chimpanzee that pulls it with an immediate but not preferred food. The trust rope, if pulled by chimpanzee A, will give chimpanzee B access to a more preferred food first who must then pull the same rope to send the food back to chimpanzee A. Chimpanzee A, in pulling the trust rope, must trust that chimpanzee B will send the food back in order for the event to be mutually beneficial.

The results of the test showed that the chimpanzees preferred the riskier option significantly more when the receiving chimp was a friend. These findings show that the trusting behaviors of humans towards their friends are not solely demonstrated by our species and had perhaps evolved from our predecessors!

The door is open for scientists to explore whether other human psychological behaviours are also being demonstrated in the animal kingdom.

Post by:  Johnny Lazazzera

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