{"id":868,"date":"2016-01-07T23:16:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T06:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/?p=868"},"modified":"2016-01-13T22:40:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T05:40:12","slug":"10-selected-talks-from-2015-part-1-discovery-and-inventions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/2016\/01\/07\/10-selected-talks-from-2015-part-1-discovery-and-inventions\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Selected Talks from 2015 \u2013 Part 1: Discovery and Inventions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reflecting back on the researchers and science communicators I encountered in 2015, I selected a\u00a0highlight of 10\u00a0topics that I have not yet elaborated on this blog.\u00a0Part 1 focuses on\u00a0discoveries and inventions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>DISCOVERIES: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nature created berries with an amazingly vivid metallic blue color that doesn&#8217;t fade for decades, as I covered in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/2015\/07\/05\/cracking-the-code-color\/\">this previous post<\/a>.\u00a0The following two\u00a0studies\u00a0also led to discoveries that help us\u00a0learn\u00a0something new about ourselves and our world.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You see <em>nori<\/em> seaweed in sushi &#8211; but did you know that the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/2010\/100407\/full\/news.2010.169.html\">Japanese are the only people known to have a specialized gut bacteria that can digest <em>nori<\/em><\/a>? Bacteria in human intestines play a key role in turning our food into energy, and <strong>knowing how gut bacteria work can help us make better recommendations on nutrition and antibiotics<\/strong> that don&#8217;t disturb our gut bacteria. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msl.ubc.ca\/faculty\/brumer\">Dr. Harry Brumer (UBC)<\/a> studies the biochemical mechanisms that gut bacteria use, and here is a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2013w212\/2014\/04\/09\/the-bacterial-breakdown-of-dietary-fibre-in-the-gut\/\">great blog and podcast\u00a0coverage<\/a>\u00a0of his most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24463512\">recent research published in <em>Nature<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/chemistry\/laureates\/2005\/schrock-lecture.html\">Nobel prize winner Dr. Richard Schrock<\/a>&#8216;s discovery in double bond chemistry has a surprising\u00a0application that prevents insects from mating. Using\u00a0&#8220;olefin metathesis&#8221; (as a more efficient and greener way to synthesize new compounds,\u00a0explained in detail <a href=\"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/archive\/2013\/title,221104,en.php\">here<\/a>), <strong>chemists can artificially produce\u00a0pheromones that<\/strong> would confuse male <a href=\"http:\/\/www.agf.gov.bc.ca\/cropprot\/tfipm\/peachborer.htm\">peach-tree borer flies<\/a> such that they can&#8217;t find a female mate, <strong>allowing to get\u00a0rid\u00a0of fruit-tree eating larvae without strong pesticides.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>INVENTIONS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/2015\/10\/05\/water-x-chemistry-strong-colorful-and-walking-super-gels\/\">previous post<\/a>, I covered\u00a0an invention of super gels that\u00a0tackled the challenges of creating tough gel\u00a0polymer materials. Here are a few more examples of discovery leading to creative new technology in our daily lives.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Like the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney?language=en\">organs created by\u00a03D-printers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/people\/view\/81118-berube-kelly\">Dr. Kelly\u00a0B\u00e9ruB\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0has &#8220;built&#8221; a lung from live\u00a0cells, but\u00a0they are virtually fully functional &#8211; the surface structures\u00a0beat rhythmically and chemical reactions occur just as in a lung in a human body. Dr. B\u00e9ruB\u00e9&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>man-made \u201cliving\u201d lungs may allow scientists to test the\u00a0efficacy of drugs and impact of pollutants on human health without human or animal subjects.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Biofuels &#8211; alternative energy sourced\u00a0from plants &#8211; is a growing field. (More about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidescience.org\/content\/corn-cobs-could-power-cars\/2006\">biofuels on Inside Science news<\/a>). While our current biofuel industry struggles to fully utilize a compound called lignin from plants, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrel.gov\/biomass\/staff_pages\/gregg_beckham.html\">Dr. Gregg Beckham<\/a> looks to soil microbes that\u00a0naturally use\u00a0lignin\u00a0to fuel their metabolism. These microbes\u00a0can help us invent <strong>&#8220;biological funnels&#8221; where ideally we can\u00a0feed lignin to soil microbes and extract compounds\u00a0that are more maneageable for us to turn into valuable biofuels<\/strong>. Red\u00a0more in\u00a0the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/111\/33\/12013.abstract\">paper <\/a>published\u00a0in PNAS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Paper and tape &#8211; sounds simple, cheap, and light to carry around. <strong>With paper, tape, and some teflon ink printing, <a href=\"http:\/\/deisslab.weebly.com\/people.html\">Dr. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Deiss<\/a> crafted\u00a0petri dishes to grow\u00a0cells and conduct diagnostic lab tests<\/strong>. It may offer\u00a0low cost options to reproduce diagnostic tests at remote sites and in developing countries where state of the art equipment is not available or too costly to transport. Read\u00a0more in\u00a0University of Alberta&#8217;s news coverage\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/uofa.ualberta.ca\/news-and-events\/newsarticles\/2014\/may\/rising-star-uses-paper-to-tackle-food-borne-diseases\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZPPygRaoXtM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Referenced talks:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Brumer, H. (2015 Mar). <em>Sweet and Savory: Understanding biological systems through structure-activity relationships between carbohydrates and enzymes<\/em>. Public lecture, Vancouver, BC.<\/p>\n<p>Schrock, R. (2015 May).<em>\u00a0My role in elucidating the catalytic reaction that led to a Nobel Prize in 2005<\/em>. Public lecture, Vancouver, BC.<\/p>\n<p>Beckham, G. (2015 Oct). <em>Lignin valorization via biological funneling and chemical catalysis<\/em>. Seminar presentation, Vancouver, BC.<\/p>\n<p>B\u00e9ruB\u00e9, K. (2015 Mar). <em>Alternative for Particle Research: Stuck Between a Rat and a Hard Place<\/em>. Webcast, Vancouver, BC.<\/p>\n<p>Deiss, F. (2015 Jan).\u00a0<em>Bioanalytical platforms from paper and imaging fiber<\/em>. Seminar presentation, Vancouver, BC.<\/p>\n<p><em>The summaries in this post is a personal selection of highlights from each of the talks and they do\u00a0not necessarily reflect the overall idea delivered in each respective talk.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflecting back on the researchers and science communicators I encountered in 2015, I selected a\u00a0highlight of 10\u00a0topics that I have not yet elaborated on this blog.\u00a0Part 1 focuses on\u00a0discoveries and inventions. &nbsp; DISCOVERIES: Nature created berries with an amazingly vivid metallic blue color that doesn&#8217;t fade for decades, as I covered in\u00a0this previous post.\u00a0The following [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558,8940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sumi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}