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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61026\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 632px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Atta3a.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-61026 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Atta3a.jpg\" alt=\"Leafcutter ants, native to Central and South America, can't digest the leaves they rely on for food, so they cultivate these gardens of fungi and bacteria to break down plant matter for them. \" width=\"632\" height=\"439\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leafcutter ants, native to Central and South America, can't digest the leaves they rely on for food, so they cultivate these gardens of fungi and bacteria to break down plant matter for them. Photo courtesy of Alex Wild; used with permission.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the lobby of the Microbial Sciences building at the University of Wisconsin, leafcutter ants in a \u003ca href=\"http://currielab.wisc.edu/antcam/\">display colony\u003c/a> hike back and forth. Improbably large leaf fragments wobble on their backs as the ants ferry them between a dwindling pile of oak leaves and a garden of fungus studded with leaves in assorted states of decay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Made up of a single species of fungus and a handful of bacterial strains, the fungus garden breaks down the ants’ leafy harvest through an efficient natural process. It’s a process that researchers believe could be a model for producing biofuel in a more sustainable way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we transition away from petroleum dependence, ethanol-based biofuel has risen to the forefront as one of the most accessible sources of renewable energy. It’s produced by fermenting plant sugars, which are strung together into long chains called polysaccharides. Before the fermentation process can begin, these chains have to be snipped apart, a process that varies in difficulty depending on the type of plant being used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polysaccharide chains found in corn kernels -- the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ethanol-domestic-fuel-supply-or-environmental-boondoggle\">primary biofuel crop\u003c/a> in the U.S. -- are relatively simple to break up. But corn depletes the soil and guzzles water and fertilizer, and using it for fuel siphons calories from the food supply to gas tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, perennial grasses and agricultural “waste” like cornstalks offer a biofuel source that has a lighter impact on the environment. But these woodier fibers -- referred to as \u003ca href=\"http://www.genomicscience.energy.gov/biofuels/placemat.shtml\">“cellulosic” biomass\u003c/a> -- are a tangle of robust polysaccharides that are trickier to deconstruct. Further complicating this problem, the molecular structure of plant biomass isn’t uniform. What breaks down the polysaccharides near the surface of a cornstalk or blade of grass might not work at all on those buried more deeply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61032\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 380px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0025.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-61032 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0025-380x253.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0025\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">University of Wisconsin researcher Frank Aylward peers into one of the lab's many leafcutter ant colonies.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But finding efficient ways to extract energy from plants and other forms of biomass is not a new problem. In fact, it’s a problem that Earth’s plant eaters solved millions of years ago. And according to University of Wisconsin researcher Frank Aylward, if you’re looking for a model system, you can’t do better than \u003ca href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/leafcutterants.jsp\">leafcutter ants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not have the imposing mien of herbivores like giraffes or elephants, but in Central and South America, leafcutter ants dominate, munching through more of the region’s foliage than any other organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the ants can’t digest leaves by themselves -- they have to rely on the garden’s microbes. “We sort of think of the fungus gardens as being an external gut,” Aylward explains. The garden digests biomass and reconstitutes its molecules in little nutrient packets holding a cocktail of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ants are essentially doing what we want to do with biofuel,” says Aylward. “They’re taking all of this recalcitrant plant biomass that’s full of all of these really complicated polymers and they’re degrading it and converting it into energy.” The transformation from leafy greens to energy source is mediated by hundreds of enzymes produced by the fungus garden’s microbes. If these enzymes chow down so efficiently on the leaves of Central America, Aylward and his coworkers wondered, could they be just as effective at breaking apart the sugars of cellulosic biomass in an industrial setting?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One model for a commercial biofuel process patterned after the fungus garden could entail splicing the genetic codes for the garden’s most effective enzymes into other microbes, prompting them to churn out biomass-digesting proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first, scientists needed to identify which enzymes the garden uses to digest leaves for the ants and which microbial residents produce them. By sequencing the genomes of the fungus and bacteria and comparing that data to the garden’s enzyme soup, Aylward and his coworkers were able to identify a fungus called \u003cstrong>Leucoagaricus gongylophorus\u003c/strong> as the garden’s biomass-degrading workhorse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61035\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 332px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0056-e1380044705953.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-61035 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0056-e1380044705953-332x253.jpg\" alt=\"Aylward extracts a fragment of the fungus garden. This segment was near the surface, and still shows visible leaf matter; the biomass in the garden sinks as it's broken down. \" width=\"332\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aylward extracts a fragment of the fungus garden. This segment was near the surface, and still shows visible leaf matter; the biomass in the garden sinks as it's broken down.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They also found that the fungus calibrates its enzyme cocktail for different stages of leaf decay. The biomass profile changes at each level in the garden -- the freshest leaves sit near the top and the mostly decomposed waste material at the bottom. And Aylward found that the garden’s enzymes changed, too. That insight could provide the biofuel industry with some clues about which enzymes might excel early in the polysaccharide-decomposition process and which ones to apply later on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, this division of labor also reveals which enzymes the garden deploys together at each level. This is a huge boon to anyone designing industrial applications, since enzymes tend to work much better in specific combinations -- and the garden has had 50 million years of symbiosis with the ants to find the most efficient combinations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aylward has already been approached by companies interested in synthesizing some of the garden’s enzymes and using them in biofuel production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's difficult to think that we can actually find a process that improves on nature,” Aylward points out, “so it probably makes sense to learn from it.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not have the imposing mien of herbivores like giraffes or elephants, but in Central and South America, leafcutter ants dominate, munching through more of the region’s foliage than any other organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the ants can’t digest leaves by themselves -- they have to rely on the garden’s microbes. “We sort of think of the fungus gardens as being an external gut,” Aylward explains. The garden digests biomass and reconstitutes its molecules in little nutrient packets holding a cocktail of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ants are essentially doing what we want to do with biofuel,” says Aylward. “They’re taking all of this recalcitrant plant biomass that’s full of all of these really complicated polymers and they’re degrading it and converting it into energy.” The transformation from leafy greens to energy source is mediated by hundreds of enzymes produced by the fungus garden’s microbes. If these enzymes chow down so efficiently on the leaves of Central America, Aylward and his coworkers wondered, could they be just as effective at breaking apart the sugars of cellulosic biomass in an industrial setting?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One model for a commercial biofuel process patterned after the fungus garden could entail splicing the genetic codes for the garden’s most effective enzymes into other microbes, prompting them to churn out biomass-digesting proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first, scientists needed to identify which enzymes the garden uses to digest leaves for the ants and which microbial residents produce them. By sequencing the genomes of the fungus and bacteria and comparing that data to the garden’s enzyme soup, Aylward and his coworkers were able to identify a fungus called \u003cstrong>Leucoagaricus gongylophorus\u003c/strong> as the garden’s biomass-degrading workhorse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61035\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 332px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0056-e1380044705953.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-61035 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC_0056-e1380044705953-332x253.jpg\" alt=\"Aylward extracts a fragment of the fungus garden. This segment was near the surface, and still shows visible leaf matter; the biomass in the garden sinks as it's broken down. \" width=\"332\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aylward extracts a fragment of the fungus garden. This segment was near the surface, and still shows visible leaf matter; the biomass in the garden sinks as it's broken down.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They also found that the fungus calibrates its enzyme cocktail for different stages of leaf decay. The biomass profile changes at each level in the garden -- the freshest leaves sit near the top and the mostly decomposed waste material at the bottom. And Aylward found that the garden’s enzymes changed, too. That insight could provide the biofuel industry with some clues about which enzymes might excel early in the polysaccharide-decomposition process and which ones to apply later on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, this division of labor also reveals which enzymes the garden deploys together at each level. This is a huge boon to anyone designing industrial applications, since enzymes tend to work much better in specific combinations -- and the garden has had 50 million years of symbiosis with the ants to find the most efficient combinations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aylward has already been approached by companies interested in synthesizing some of the garden’s enzymes and using them in biofuel production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's difficult to think that we can actually find a process that improves on nature,” Aylward points out, “so it probably makes sense to learn from it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Soil-microbes-e1378767382648.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-60124\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Soil-microbes-e1378767382648.jpg\" alt=\"XBD201108-01182-110.TIF\" width=\"640\" height=\"419\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soil scientist Margaret Torn conducting fieldwork on microbes in the soil near Council, Alaska. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Jennifer Huber— Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">In the northernmost city of the United States—Barrow, Alaska—the treeless, flat tundra looks stark and forbidding to many people. The permafrost (permanently frozen soil) is only capable of supporting plants like moss, heather, and lichen, and the temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">However, this tundra is a mecca for climate scientists like Margaret Torn, co-lead of the Climate and Carbon Sciences Program at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a> (Berkeley Lab).\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cem>\"[Alaskan permafrost] has been storing carbon for a long, long time. But that carbon can be decomposed and released as carbon dioxide very quickly when the conditions are right\" --soil scientist Margaret Torn\u003c/em>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Torn just returned from performing field experiments near Barrow. She is part of the 10-year \u003ca href=\"http://ngee-arctic.ornl.gov/\">Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment\u003c/a>, a large collaboration among scientists and engineers who are trying to better understand the Arctic’s terrestrial ecosystem so they can improve vital climate predictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These scientists are finding \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10040-012-0939-y\">new ways\u003c/a> to study this complex ecosystem, including looking deep into the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Soil is a big mystery,” explains Torn. “We don’t understand why soil holds so much carbon. And we don’t understand how a warming climate will affect soils, the question being whether a warming climate will result in carbon transferring from soils to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, creating additional global warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are an important part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bAuCfaNYNE\">carbon cycle\u003c/a>. In the natural carbon cycle, carbon dioxide is taken up by plants and photosynthesized. If the plants aren’t harvested for food or fuel, they decay and their organic matter makes its way to the soil. There, it is processed by tiny microbes—bacteria and fungi—that release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are critical because they store about 2.3 \u003cem>trillion\u003c/em> tons of carbon—more than twice as much as the atmosphere or vegetation. In comparison, burning fossil fuels releases about 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are also a long-term reservoir of carbon. Carbon cycles very slowly deep in the soil, where it can remain for 50,000 years. So, a critical question is, how long will soils contain these rich deposits of carbon? Will the carbon stay put or will it enter the atmosphere in the near future, greatly amplifying climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arctic’s tundra is an area that is particularly worrisome. Cold temperatures suppress microbial growth, which helps trap the vast stores of carbon in the soil. But global warming is causing the permafrost to thaw, triggering the microbes to become active and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60168\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/greenhouse-gas-measurements.png\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-60168 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/greenhouse-gas-measurements.png\" alt=\"Equipment that measures greenhouse gas fluxes from the tundra into the atmosphere.\" width=\"277\" height=\"369\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Equipment Torn and her team use to sample greenhouse gases flowing from the land to the atmosphere. They later determine how old the carbon is in these gas samples using carbon-14 dating. Photo: Margaret Torn\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Torn’s group drills wells in the Alaskan ground to directly measure the flow of carbon dioxide and methane from the land to the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They measure these gas flows in areas where the permafrost is intact and where it is thawing, trying to understand the environmental variables that are controlling the release of greenhouse gases. They see very high methane concentrations in areas where the permafrost is thawing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this summer they found that in some areas specialized microbes consume this methane before it is released, so carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is good news for the environment because carbon dioxide is a less potent greenhouse gas than methane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also take soil core samples from different regions in Barrow and then incubate them at different temperatures at Berkeley Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They find that each handful of soil has thousands of different kinds of microbes and billions of cells that respond differently to the environment. They also determine the age of the carbon in the samples by using \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/carbon-14.htm\">carbon-14 dating\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing we’ve seen this summer is that the carbon that is being decomposed just above the permafrost is more than 2,500 years old,” says Torn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, this place that we’re studying has been storing carbon for a long, long time. But that carbon can be decomposed and released as carbon dioxide very quickly when the conditions are right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These results have been validated by other recent experiments, but they contradict the old belief that carbon hidden deep in soil will remain there forever due to the soil’s material properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The field is evolving rapidly. We’re trying to unravel the mystery of why we see older carbon in the soil, trying to create a more realistic view,” explains Torn. “It is more complex. It’s the interaction between the entire ecosystem and the material properties that’s important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the more complicated, realistic view makes climate modeling more challenging. Climate models are computer programs that simulate how the climate has changed in the past and how it will change in the future. They are critical to understanding our planet and how to limit the impact of human activity upon it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists know that their climate models are wrong when it comes to soil carbon. This is why scientists need new data, like the data they’re acquiring in Alaska, to test and improve their models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can do so much better than we’re doing,” says Torn. “So, we feel pretty confident that we can make improvements. It may not be perfect, but our work is going to make predictions more robust and believable.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Soil-microbes-e1378767382648.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-60124\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Soil-microbes-e1378767382648.jpg\" alt=\"XBD201108-01182-110.TIF\" width=\"640\" height=\"419\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soil scientist Margaret Torn conducting fieldwork on microbes in the soil near Council, Alaska. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Jennifer Huber— Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">In the northernmost city of the United States—Barrow, Alaska—the treeless, flat tundra looks stark and forbidding to many people. The permafrost (permanently frozen soil) is only capable of supporting plants like moss, heather, and lichen, and the temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">However, this tundra is a mecca for climate scientists like Margaret Torn, co-lead of the Climate and Carbon Sciences Program at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a> (Berkeley Lab).\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cem>\"[Alaskan permafrost] has been storing carbon for a long, long time. But that carbon can be decomposed and released as carbon dioxide very quickly when the conditions are right\" --soil scientist Margaret Torn\u003c/em>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Torn just returned from performing field experiments near Barrow. She is part of the 10-year \u003ca href=\"http://ngee-arctic.ornl.gov/\">Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment\u003c/a>, a large collaboration among scientists and engineers who are trying to better understand the Arctic’s terrestrial ecosystem so they can improve vital climate predictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These scientists are finding \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10040-012-0939-y\">new ways\u003c/a> to study this complex ecosystem, including looking deep into the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Soil is a big mystery,” explains Torn. “We don’t understand why soil holds so much carbon. And we don’t understand how a warming climate will affect soils, the question being whether a warming climate will result in carbon transferring from soils to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, creating additional global warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are an important part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bAuCfaNYNE\">carbon cycle\u003c/a>. In the natural carbon cycle, carbon dioxide is taken up by plants and photosynthesized. If the plants aren’t harvested for food or fuel, they decay and their organic matter makes its way to the soil. There, it is processed by tiny microbes—bacteria and fungi—that release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are critical because they store about 2.3 \u003cem>trillion\u003c/em> tons of carbon—more than twice as much as the atmosphere or vegetation. In comparison, burning fossil fuels releases about 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soils are also a long-term reservoir of carbon. Carbon cycles very slowly deep in the soil, where it can remain for 50,000 years. So, a critical question is, how long will soils contain these rich deposits of carbon? Will the carbon stay put or will it enter the atmosphere in the near future, greatly amplifying climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arctic’s tundra is an area that is particularly worrisome. Cold temperatures suppress microbial growth, which helps trap the vast stores of carbon in the soil. But global warming is causing the permafrost to thaw, triggering the microbes to become active and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60168\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/greenhouse-gas-measurements.png\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-60168 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/greenhouse-gas-measurements.png\" alt=\"Equipment that measures greenhouse gas fluxes from the tundra into the atmosphere.\" width=\"277\" height=\"369\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Equipment Torn and her team use to sample greenhouse gases flowing from the land to the atmosphere. They later determine how old the carbon is in these gas samples using carbon-14 dating. Photo: Margaret Torn\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Torn’s group drills wells in the Alaskan ground to directly measure the flow of carbon dioxide and methane from the land to the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They measure these gas flows in areas where the permafrost is intact and where it is thawing, trying to understand the environmental variables that are controlling the release of greenhouse gases. They see very high methane concentrations in areas where the permafrost is thawing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this summer they found that in some areas specialized microbes consume this methane before it is released, so carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is good news for the environment because carbon dioxide is a less potent greenhouse gas than methane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also take soil core samples from different regions in Barrow and then incubate them at different temperatures at Berkeley Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They find that each handful of soil has thousands of different kinds of microbes and billions of cells that respond differently to the environment. They also determine the age of the carbon in the samples by using \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/carbon-14.htm\">carbon-14 dating\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing we’ve seen this summer is that the carbon that is being decomposed just above the permafrost is more than 2,500 years old,” says Torn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, this place that we’re studying has been storing carbon for a long, long time. But that carbon can be decomposed and released as carbon dioxide very quickly when the conditions are right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These results have been validated by other recent experiments, but they contradict the old belief that carbon hidden deep in soil will remain there forever due to the soil’s material properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The field is evolving rapidly. We’re trying to unravel the mystery of why we see older carbon in the soil, trying to create a more realistic view,” explains Torn. “It is more complex. It’s the interaction between the entire ecosystem and the material properties that’s important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the more complicated, realistic view makes climate modeling more challenging. Climate models are computer programs that simulate how the climate has changed in the past and how it will change in the future. They are critical to understanding our planet and how to limit the impact of human activity upon it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists know that their climate models are wrong when it comes to soil carbon. This is why scientists need new data, like the data they’re acquiring in Alaska, to test and improve their models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can do so much better than we’re doing,” says Torn. “So, we feel pretty confident that we can make improvements. It may not be perfect, but our work is going to make predictions more robust and believable.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It takes two days to train a cow to milk itself. This may sound like a farmer’s utopia, but at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecodairy.ca/\">Bakerview EcoDairy\u003c/a>, a robotic milker is just one of many dairy farm innovations being put to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59485\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 447px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-59485 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1.jpg\" alt=\"Bakerview AD\" width=\"447\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1.jpg 1533w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-800x535.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-960x643.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bakerview EcoDairy's anaerobic digester stretches 60 feet long and converts methane gas from cow manure into electricity for use on the farm.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bill Vanderkooi, president and CEO of the Bakerview EcoDairy farm, seeks out all of the latest technologies to help him run his operation, which hosts an onsite market and agricultural education center. Armed with a master’s degree in animal science, Vanderkooi opened the 80-acre farm near Abbotsford, British Columbia, in June of 2010. He has since established himself as a pioneer among small-scale, sustainable farm owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An anaerobic digester is one of the key technologies that Vanderkooi uses in his quest to reduce his farm’s ecological footprint. This machine turns the methane gas released from cow manure into electricity. About \u003ca href=\"http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html\">65 percent\u003c/a> of cow manure is composed of methane, making it an abundant energy resource. Over the course of a year, Bakerview EcoDairy is able to offset a third of the energy needed to operate the farm, thanks to the digester and a small herd of 50 cows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.gov/agstar/anaerobic/\">how does anaerobic digestion work\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59466\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 276px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/AD-diagram-2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-59466 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/AD-diagram-2-276x360.jpg\" alt=\"AD diagram (2)\" width=\"276\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of \u003ca href=\"http://www.nethyenergy.co.uk/\">Nethy Energy\u003c/a>. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before entering the digester, manure is heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the perfect temperature to prime the appetite of picky microorganisms. Pistons push the hot manure into the main chamber where the microorganisms feast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The manure breaks down into a biogas bubble and a mixture of solids and liquids. The bubble, mostly methane gas, can be harnessed and used to fuel an engine and generate electricity. The whole process takes 21 days. The leftover solids and liquids are filtered and used for cow bedding and fertilizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Farmers in BC are very interested in anaerobic digestion,” says Peter Torenvliet, the farm’s operations manager. Torenvliet adds that Bakerview EcoDairy established “a first of its kind on-farm anaerobic digestion system that is designed to be integrated into commercial dairy farms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Its contribution to the greenhouse effect is over 20 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide. On a typical farm, cow manure is spread on fields where the methane gas seeps out of the manure and into the atmosphere. Digesters can help combat methane release by burning the gas and converting it to carbon dioxide. The digester captures the methane before it has a chance to escape into the atmosphere in its pure form.These digesters do more than generate a sustainable source of electricity for commercial farms. They also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 456px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-59431 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product.jpg\" alt=\"Solid by-product\" width=\"456\" height=\"342\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product.jpg 1448w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-800x601.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-1440x1081.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-1180x886.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-960x721.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The digesting process creates an odorless, solid by-product. Bakerview EcoDairy uses this by-product for cow bedding.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s another perk, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides generating electricity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the anaerobic digestion process eliminates nearly all cow manure odors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many small farmers struggle to afford the new technology, but increased popularity and demand are helping make digesters more accessible. Soon more small farms like Bakerview EcoDairy should be able to take advantage of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am proud to see clean, on-site [electricity] generation for our demonstration dairy,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.el.bchydro.com/mediabulletins/bulletin/technology_innovation/abbotsford_home_to_canadas_first_onfarm_cowpowered_dairy\">says Vanderkooi\u003c/a>, “We pride ourselves on being a responsible and sustainable organization and I appreciate the opportunity we have to educate the public on environmentally and animal-friendly innovations in a fully operational farm.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It takes two days to train a cow to milk itself. This may sound like a farmer’s utopia, but at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecodairy.ca/\">Bakerview EcoDairy\u003c/a>, a robotic milker is just one of many dairy farm innovations being put to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59485\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 447px\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-59485 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1.jpg\" alt=\"Bakerview AD\" width=\"447\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1.jpg 1533w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-800x535.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Bakerview-AD1-960x643.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bakerview EcoDairy's anaerobic digester stretches 60 feet long and converts methane gas from cow manure into electricity for use on the farm.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bill Vanderkooi, president and CEO of the Bakerview EcoDairy farm, seeks out all of the latest technologies to help him run his operation, which hosts an onsite market and agricultural education center. Armed with a master’s degree in animal science, Vanderkooi opened the 80-acre farm near Abbotsford, British Columbia, in June of 2010. He has since established himself as a pioneer among small-scale, sustainable farm owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An anaerobic digester is one of the key technologies that Vanderkooi uses in his quest to reduce his farm’s ecological footprint. This machine turns the methane gas released from cow manure into electricity. About \u003ca href=\"http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html\">65 percent\u003c/a> of cow manure is composed of methane, making it an abundant energy resource. Over the course of a year, Bakerview EcoDairy is able to offset a third of the energy needed to operate the farm, thanks to the digester and a small herd of 50 cows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.gov/agstar/anaerobic/\">how does anaerobic digestion work\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59466\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 276px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/AD-diagram-2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-59466 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/AD-diagram-2-276x360.jpg\" alt=\"AD diagram (2)\" width=\"276\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of \u003ca href=\"http://www.nethyenergy.co.uk/\">Nethy Energy\u003c/a>. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before entering the digester, manure is heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the perfect temperature to prime the appetite of picky microorganisms. Pistons push the hot manure into the main chamber where the microorganisms feast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The manure breaks down into a biogas bubble and a mixture of solids and liquids. The bubble, mostly methane gas, can be harnessed and used to fuel an engine and generate electricity. The whole process takes 21 days. The leftover solids and liquids are filtered and used for cow bedding and fertilizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Farmers in BC are very interested in anaerobic digestion,” says Peter Torenvliet, the farm’s operations manager. Torenvliet adds that Bakerview EcoDairy established “a first of its kind on-farm anaerobic digestion system that is designed to be integrated into commercial dairy farms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Its contribution to the greenhouse effect is over 20 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide. On a typical farm, cow manure is spread on fields where the methane gas seeps out of the manure and into the atmosphere. Digesters can help combat methane release by burning the gas and converting it to carbon dioxide. The digester captures the methane before it has a chance to escape into the atmosphere in its pure form.These digesters do more than generate a sustainable source of electricity for commercial farms. They also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 456px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-59431 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product.jpg\" alt=\"Solid by-product\" width=\"456\" height=\"342\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product.jpg 1448w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-800x601.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-1440x1081.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-1180x886.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/Solid-by-product-960x721.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The digesting process creates an odorless, solid by-product. Bakerview EcoDairy uses this by-product for cow bedding.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s another perk, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides generating electricity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the anaerobic digestion process eliminates nearly all cow manure odors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many small farmers struggle to afford the new technology, but increased popularity and demand are helping make digesters more accessible. Soon more small farms like Bakerview EcoDairy should be able to take advantage of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am proud to see clean, on-site [electricity] generation for our demonstration dairy,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.el.bchydro.com/mediabulletins/bulletin/technology_innovation/abbotsford_home_to_canadas_first_onfarm_cowpowered_dairy\">says Vanderkooi\u003c/a>, “We pride ourselves on being a responsible and sustainable organization and I appreciate the opportunity we have to educate the public on environmentally and animal-friendly innovations in a fully operational farm.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Sobsey-Marquee.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57893 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Sobsey-Marquee-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hupdiggs\">@hupdiggs\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Dan Lane, UNC Chapel Hill\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are reading this article, you are probably one of the fortunate ones. Chances are you can trust that the glass of water in front of you is safe to drink. Sadly, that’s not the case for about a quarter of the world’s population. Nearly two \u003cstrong>billion \u003c/strong>people around the world get sick every year from untreated water. Of those affected, nearly \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/\">two million die, including 750,000 children\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html\">contaminated water leads to more deaths than HIV/AIDS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The silent assassins are bacteria like E. coli, which find their way from fecal waste into the local water supply. You can’t see it, smell it, or taste it, but it can kill you. Water may be a source of life, but it is also a vessel of disease and death. Ideally, everyone would have access to safe, treated water. But building that kind of infrastructure -- especially in remote areas -- takes time and money, something many governments and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) lack. In the meantime, the best strategy for reducing the risk of contracting water-borne illnesses is to determine where the bacterial bad guys are lurking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_58406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 208px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3989.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-58406 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3989-208x253.jpg\" alt=\"More people die every year from contaminated water than HIV/AIDS. Photo courtesy, Dr. Mark Sobsey.\" width=\"208\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fecal bacteria, like E. coli, infect nearly 2 billion people per year. Photo courtesy Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The problem is that most detection methods are prohibitively expensive and technical, and getting the results takes a long time. Many tests require taking specialized gear -- test tubes, pipettes, and sterilizing equipment -- to the water source. Another option is to ship water samples from the field to commercial labs around the world. Both methods require trained technicians and can push the price up to $100 per test. Such high costs have severely limited the number of water-quality tests being conducted in at-risk regions -- until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“As far as measuring what water is safe to drink, [the UN] probably got it wrong,” says Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Enter Dr. Mark Sobsey, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Sobsey developed a cheap and simple test to determine how many \u003cstrong>E. coli\u003c/strong> bacteria live in a given water sample. His \u003ca href=\"http://www.aquagenx.com/index.html\">Compartment Bag Test\u003c/a> (CBT), which looks like a plastic reclosable bag with five internal compartments, doesn’t require fancy lab equipment or trained technicians. It’s designed to be used by anyone anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The self-contained kit reveals within a day if a water source is safe to drink. Here’s how it works:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. Fill a vial with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Add some bacterial medium (bacteria food made up of carbon compounds, digested proteins, and salts).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Pour the water sample into the CBT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. Let the bag sit overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57892\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 229px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/CBT-Kit.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-57892 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/CBT-Kit-282x253.jpg\" alt=\"CBT Kit\" width=\"229\" height=\"205\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CBT costs less than $10, compared to $100 for alternative testing kits. Photo by @hupdiggs.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Compartments containing at least one E. coli cell turn bluish green. Depending on which compartments change color, you can determine the level of contamination in the water sample. For example, if only the smallest compartment turns green, the water has about one \u003cstrong>E. coli\u003c/strong> cell in every 100 milliliters. That’s “probably safe” to drink according to Sobsey. If all five compartments turn green, your water is “unsafe,” which means you definitely don’t want to drink it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_58405\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 218px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3801.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-58405 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3801-218x253.jpg\" alt=\"0000000776-IMG_3801\" width=\"218\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">No technician required: the CBT allows end users to determine if their water is safe to drink. Photo courtesy Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a cost of less than $10, Sobsey’s user-friendly kit is poised to revolutionize the breadth and scope of water-quality testing. For example, \u003ca href=\"http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202012.pdf\">a 2012 United Nations report\u003c/a> concluded it was\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>not possible to measure water quality worldwide, in part because of money. Instead of measuring quality, the UN set its \u003ca href=\"http://www.wssinfo.org/definitions-methods/watsan-categories/\">standards based on whether water is “improved.\u003c/a>” However, “improved” water includes any water run through a pipe. Channeling muddy puddle water through a lead pipe could be considered “improved” by the UN.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as measuring what water is safe to drink, [the UN] probably got it wrong,” says Sobsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cheaper tests allow NGOs to expand their water-quality testing. Through his company, Aquagenx, which he calls his “socially responsible LLC,” Sobsey has sold 20,000 CBTs to aid organizations around the world, such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/water-and-sanitation\">USAID\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be responsible to bring testing capacity to the people that need it,” says Sobsey. “Everybody deserves to know if their water is safe.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cins cite=\"mailto:David%20Huppert\" datetime=\"2013-07-11T16:41\"> \u003c/ins>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Sobsey-Marquee.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57893 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/Sobsey-Marquee-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hupdiggs\">@hupdiggs\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Dan Lane, UNC Chapel Hill\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are reading this article, you are probably one of the fortunate ones. Chances are you can trust that the glass of water in front of you is safe to drink. Sadly, that’s not the case for about a quarter of the world’s population. Nearly two \u003cstrong>billion \u003c/strong>people around the world get sick every year from untreated water. Of those affected, nearly \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/\">two million die, including 750,000 children\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html\">contaminated water leads to more deaths than HIV/AIDS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The silent assassins are bacteria like E. coli, which find their way from fecal waste into the local water supply. You can’t see it, smell it, or taste it, but it can kill you. Water may be a source of life, but it is also a vessel of disease and death. Ideally, everyone would have access to safe, treated water. But building that kind of infrastructure -- especially in remote areas -- takes time and money, something many governments and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) lack. In the meantime, the best strategy for reducing the risk of contracting water-borne illnesses is to determine where the bacterial bad guys are lurking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_58406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 208px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3989.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-58406 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3989-208x253.jpg\" alt=\"More people die every year from contaminated water than HIV/AIDS. Photo courtesy, Dr. Mark Sobsey.\" width=\"208\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fecal bacteria, like E. coli, infect nearly 2 billion people per year. Photo courtesy Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The problem is that most detection methods are prohibitively expensive and technical, and getting the results takes a long time. Many tests require taking specialized gear -- test tubes, pipettes, and sterilizing equipment -- to the water source. Another option is to ship water samples from the field to commercial labs around the world. Both methods require trained technicians and can push the price up to $100 per test. Such high costs have severely limited the number of water-quality tests being conducted in at-risk regions -- until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“As far as measuring what water is safe to drink, [the UN] probably got it wrong,” says Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Enter Dr. Mark Sobsey, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Sobsey developed a cheap and simple test to determine how many \u003cstrong>E. coli\u003c/strong> bacteria live in a given water sample. His \u003ca href=\"http://www.aquagenx.com/index.html\">Compartment Bag Test\u003c/a> (CBT), which looks like a plastic reclosable bag with five internal compartments, doesn’t require fancy lab equipment or trained technicians. It’s designed to be used by anyone anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The self-contained kit reveals within a day if a water source is safe to drink. Here’s how it works:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. Fill a vial with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Add some bacterial medium (bacteria food made up of carbon compounds, digested proteins, and salts).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Pour the water sample into the CBT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. Let the bag sit overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57892\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 229px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/CBT-Kit.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-57892 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/CBT-Kit-282x253.jpg\" alt=\"CBT Kit\" width=\"229\" height=\"205\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CBT costs less than $10, compared to $100 for alternative testing kits. Photo by @hupdiggs.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Compartments containing at least one E. coli cell turn bluish green. Depending on which compartments change color, you can determine the level of contamination in the water sample. For example, if only the smallest compartment turns green, the water has about one \u003cstrong>E. coli\u003c/strong> cell in every 100 milliliters. That’s “probably safe” to drink according to Sobsey. If all five compartments turn green, your water is “unsafe,” which means you definitely don’t want to drink it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_58405\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 218px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3801.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-58405 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/0000000776-IMG_3801-218x253.jpg\" alt=\"0000000776-IMG_3801\" width=\"218\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">No technician required: the CBT allows end users to determine if their water is safe to drink. Photo courtesy Dr. Mark Sobsey.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a cost of less than $10, Sobsey’s user-friendly kit is poised to revolutionize the breadth and scope of water-quality testing. For example, \u003ca href=\"http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202012.pdf\">a 2012 United Nations report\u003c/a> concluded it was\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>not possible to measure water quality worldwide, in part because of money. Instead of measuring quality, the UN set its \u003ca href=\"http://www.wssinfo.org/definitions-methods/watsan-categories/\">standards based on whether water is “improved.\u003c/a>” However, “improved” water includes any water run through a pipe. Channeling muddy puddle water through a lead pipe could be considered “improved” by the UN.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as measuring what water is safe to drink, [the UN] probably got it wrong,” says Sobsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cheaper tests allow NGOs to expand their water-quality testing. Through his company, Aquagenx, which he calls his “socially responsible LLC,” Sobsey has sold 20,000 CBTs to aid organizations around the world, such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/water-and-sanitation\">USAID\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be responsible to bring testing capacity to the people that need it,” says Sobsey. “Everybody deserves to know if their water is safe.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cins cite=\"mailto:David%20Huppert\" datetime=\"2013-07-11T16:41\"> \u003c/ins>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "From Trash to Cash: Old Landfills Yield New Opportunities",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57421\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Salvage-Yard-Montana-1942-16-9.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57421\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Salvage-Yard-Montana-1942-16-9-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">World War II salvage site in Butte, Montana. Photo by Russell Lee, 1942.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57422\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 164px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/SaveYourCans.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-57422\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/SaveYourCans-164x253.jpg\" alt=\"By McClelland Barclay for War Production Board, Salvage Division, 1941–1942\" width=\"164\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">WWII poster by McClelland Barclay for War Production Board, Salvage Division, 1941–1942. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Matt Shipman - Raleigh, NC\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United States was very good at recycling during World War II. It was our patriotic duty. Families brought everything from scrap metal to old tires in to collection centers where they were used to make supplies for the war effort. But when the war ended, so did recycling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Americans were making (and buying) things but not recycling them. We made refrigerators the size of cars and cars the size of boats. And when a product was broken, or even if it wasn’t, it was thrown away. Used cars, refrigerators, mountains of cans, and countless other household products found their way into junkyards and landfills. Now, we may want them back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why: resources, such as metals, are becoming more and more expensive. A pound of copper set you back less than a dollar in 2000. Since then, copper prices have more than tripled, reaching a high of $3.92 per pound in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is likely that, in the distant future, landfills will become very valuable sources of many raw materials,” says Jamie Caswell, a spokesperson for the National Mining Association. “We are not there yet, though -- at least not in the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other countries \u003cstrong>are \u003c/strong>there. The Belgian waste management company Group Machiels has \u003ca href=\"http://www.machiels.com/company-detail.aspx?ID=885c55e0-f3b6-4fe6-aa25-1fa7bfc312dd\">announced plans\u003c/a> to mine a landfill east of Brussels. Group Machiels estimates that 45 percent of the material in the landfill can be recycled, with the remainder to be converted into gas that can be used as a fuel source -- calling to mind images of \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HYoq6vIVXc\">Doc Brown fueling his time machine\u003c/a> in the film \u003cstrong>Back to the Future\u003c/strong>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> The process, called \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/plasma-converter.htm\">plasmification\u003c/a>, uses extremely high temperatures to break organic material down into a sort of synthetic version of natural gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57448\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 380px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Mt_Trashmore_kingkog911.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-57448\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Mt_Trashmore_kingkog911-380x253.jpg\" alt=\"Mt. Trashmore encompasses 165 acres in Virginia Beach, VA. Photo courtesy: King Kong 911 (link to flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonypic/\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mount Trashmore Park encompasses 165 acres in Virginia Beach, VA. Photo courtesy: \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonypic/\">King Kong 911\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What obstacles exist to landfill mining in the United States? For one thing, many older landfill sites have been developed, making them essentially inaccessible for mining operations. For example, in the 1970s, a landfill in Virginia Beach, Virginia was turned into a popular 165-acre recreation area called \u003ca href=\"http://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/parks-recreation/parks-trails/city-parks/Pages/mount-trashmore-park.aspx\">Mount Trashmore Park. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another challenge is the lack of precedent: with no federal landfill-mining laws on the books, there is uncertainty about how the process might be regulated. And companies hate uncertainty -- it’s hard to plan for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, as any fan of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_Wars\">\u003cstrong>Storage Wars\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem> \u003c/em>will tell you, there is always a risk when bidding on something sight unseen. Companies want assurance that they will turn a profit, and that depends on what exactly is buried in a landfill. If it contains a lot of metal, it might be a good investment. If it’s full of old sofas and polystyrene fast-food containers, it is more likely to lose money. And if the mining uncovers asbestos or other hazardous materials, a company could find itself saddled with the costly task of disposing of hazardous waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that we don’t have a lot of information about what exactly is in our landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is only in recent years that accurate knowledge, and then only in broad terms, is available to assess what wastes a landfill site may contain,” according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iswa.org%2Findex.php%3FeID%3Dtx_iswaknowledgebase_download%26documentUid%3D3154&ei=RFK7UbmTOY3w8ATiiYCIAQ&usg=AFQjCNERHnQyaTPdML4wUfOagculUy4swg&sig2=y_S9E-f\">an issue paper\u003c/a> on landfill mining released by the International Solid Waste Association. And since those evaluation techniques are essential to estimate both profit and risk, they may need to improve before companies opt to pursue landfill mining in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, if the cost of metals continues to rise, some companies may decide the risk is worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We made use of old materials in the 1940s because it was the patriotic thing to do. We may do the same in the 21st century because it is the practical thing to do. It might even be profitable, and there’s nothing more American than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57451\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/UN-Landfill-image.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57451 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/UN-Landfill-image-535x360.jpg\" alt=\"UN Photo/Evan Schneider\" width=\"535\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Americans generate 250 million tons of trash each year, according to the EPA. United Nations photo by Evan Schneider\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57421\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Salvage-Yard-Montana-1942-16-9.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57421\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Salvage-Yard-Montana-1942-16-9-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">World War II salvage site in Butte, Montana. Photo by Russell Lee, 1942.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57422\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 164px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/SaveYourCans.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-57422\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/SaveYourCans-164x253.jpg\" alt=\"By McClelland Barclay for War Production Board, Salvage Division, 1941–1942\" width=\"164\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">WWII poster by McClelland Barclay for War Production Board, Salvage Division, 1941–1942. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">Community Contributor |\u003c/span>\u003c/strong> Matt Shipman - Raleigh, NC\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United States was very good at recycling during World War II. It was our patriotic duty. Families brought everything from scrap metal to old tires in to collection centers where they were used to make supplies for the war effort. But when the war ended, so did recycling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Americans were making (and buying) things but not recycling them. We made refrigerators the size of cars and cars the size of boats. And when a product was broken, or even if it wasn’t, it was thrown away. Used cars, refrigerators, mountains of cans, and countless other household products found their way into junkyards and landfills. Now, we may want them back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why: resources, such as metals, are becoming more and more expensive. A pound of copper set you back less than a dollar in 2000. Since then, copper prices have more than tripled, reaching a high of $3.92 per pound in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is likely that, in the distant future, landfills will become very valuable sources of many raw materials,” says Jamie Caswell, a spokesperson for the National Mining Association. “We are not there yet, though -- at least not in the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other countries \u003cstrong>are \u003c/strong>there. The Belgian waste management company Group Machiels has \u003ca href=\"http://www.machiels.com/company-detail.aspx?ID=885c55e0-f3b6-4fe6-aa25-1fa7bfc312dd\">announced plans\u003c/a> to mine a landfill east of Brussels. Group Machiels estimates that 45 percent of the material in the landfill can be recycled, with the remainder to be converted into gas that can be used as a fuel source -- calling to mind images of \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HYoq6vIVXc\">Doc Brown fueling his time machine\u003c/a> in the film \u003cstrong>Back to the Future\u003c/strong>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> The process, called \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/plasma-converter.htm\">plasmification\u003c/a>, uses extremely high temperatures to break organic material down into a sort of synthetic version of natural gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57448\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 380px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Mt_Trashmore_kingkog911.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-57448\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/Mt_Trashmore_kingkog911-380x253.jpg\" alt=\"Mt. Trashmore encompasses 165 acres in Virginia Beach, VA. Photo courtesy: King Kong 911 (link to flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonypic/\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mount Trashmore Park encompasses 165 acres in Virginia Beach, VA. Photo courtesy: \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonypic/\">King Kong 911\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What obstacles exist to landfill mining in the United States? For one thing, many older landfill sites have been developed, making them essentially inaccessible for mining operations. For example, in the 1970s, a landfill in Virginia Beach, Virginia was turned into a popular 165-acre recreation area called \u003ca href=\"http://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/parks-recreation/parks-trails/city-parks/Pages/mount-trashmore-park.aspx\">Mount Trashmore Park. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another challenge is the lack of precedent: with no federal landfill-mining laws on the books, there is uncertainty about how the process might be regulated. And companies hate uncertainty -- it’s hard to plan for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, as any fan of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_Wars\">\u003cstrong>Storage Wars\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem> \u003c/em>will tell you, there is always a risk when bidding on something sight unseen. Companies want assurance that they will turn a profit, and that depends on what exactly is buried in a landfill. If it contains a lot of metal, it might be a good investment. If it’s full of old sofas and polystyrene fast-food containers, it is more likely to lose money. And if the mining uncovers asbestos or other hazardous materials, a company could find itself saddled with the costly task of disposing of hazardous waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that we don’t have a lot of information about what exactly is in our landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is only in recent years that accurate knowledge, and then only in broad terms, is available to assess what wastes a landfill site may contain,” according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iswa.org%2Findex.php%3FeID%3Dtx_iswaknowledgebase_download%26documentUid%3D3154&ei=RFK7UbmTOY3w8ATiiYCIAQ&usg=AFQjCNERHnQyaTPdML4wUfOagculUy4swg&sig2=y_S9E-f\">an issue paper\u003c/a> on landfill mining released by the International Solid Waste Association. And since those evaluation techniques are essential to estimate both profit and risk, they may need to improve before companies opt to pursue landfill mining in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, if the cost of metals continues to rise, some companies may decide the risk is worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We made use of old materials in the 1940s because it was the patriotic thing to do. We may do the same in the 21st century because it is the practical thing to do. It might even be profitable, and there’s nothing more American than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57451\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/UN-Landfill-image.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-57451 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/06/UN-Landfill-image-535x360.jpg\" alt=\"UN Photo/Evan Schneider\" width=\"535\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Americans generate 250 million tons of trash each year, according to the EPA. United Nations photo by Evan Schneider\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Sustainable Spirits: Liquor for the Locavore",
"title": "Sustainable Spirits: Liquor for the Locavore",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-56782\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340.jpg\" alt=\"deaths door bottle\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340-400x200.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">Liquor may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term \"eating local.\" But distilleries in the Madison, Wisconsin area are helping to expand our notions of what can be made and consumed locally. These artisanal distillers are crafting spirits using locally-sourced ingredients like wheat for whiskey, apples for brandy and juniper for gin. Similar to area chefs that seek out homegrown foods for their recipes or the organizers of Madison's bustling farmers market, these spirit-makers are committed to supporting the region's small agricultural producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even knowing that, I was surprised to find a booth promoting community-supported agriculture at one of these distilleries during a recent visit. But there it was, right next to the kombucha stand, at \u003ca href=\"http://deathsdoorspirits.com/\">Death’s Door Distillery \u003c/a>in Middleton, WI. The occasion was the one year anniversary party for this state of the art facility that makes fine alcohols from locally-sourced organic grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve just been a really big supporter of our farms and of our organization as we try to connect growers and eaters,” Erika Jones of \u003ca href=\"http://www.csacoalition.org/\">Fair Share CSA Coalition \u003c/a>told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And drinkers!” she added when I reminded her of the setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56786\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 144px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Brian-Ellison001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56786\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Brian-Ellison001-144x169.jpg\" alt=\"Brian Ellison, Founder, Death's Door Distillery\" width=\"144\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Ellison, Founder, Death's Door Distillery\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporting local farms is at the heart of Death’s Door’s mission. “My background is in economic development — rural economic development,” explains founder Brian Ellison. “I got involved in this project to help restore agriculture back to Washington Island as part of a sustainable economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington Island lies just off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula, the “thumb” of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan. Death’s Door is the name of the sometimes treacherous passage between the two. Door County is sometimes called Wisconsin’s Cape Cod, which makes Washington Island something like Nantucket. And like that more famous island, Washington Island’s economy has become ever more dependent on tourism. But it wasn’t always this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 186px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/250px-DEATHS_DOOR1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/250px-DEATHS_DOOR1-186x169.png\" alt=\"Death's Door passage, Washington Island, Wisconsin\" width=\"186\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death's Door passage, Washington Island, Wisconsin\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At one time, the island had a thriving agricultural economy based on potatoes that were well known up and down the Lake Michigan coast. As transportation systems improved and produce was moved easily and cheaply across country, the island-grown potatoes couldn’t compete. The potato fields became vacation home lots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are at least 1,200 acres that won’t go into development anytime soon, however. Those are the fields where brothers Tom and Ken Koyne, fifth-generation islanders, grow organic red wheat for use in Death’s Door whiskey, gin and vodka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using organic ingredients for alcohol presents special challenges according to chief distiller John Jeffrey, “Because it’s organic, it tends to come in with a much higher microbial load than commercial grain.” Without the chemical pesticides used on many commercial crops, microbes are free to flourish. Those microbes sometimes compete with Death's Door's signature yeast, which is added to a mash made of island wheat and other grains during the fermentation process. It’s the yeast’s job to feast on the sugars in the grain mash and produce ethanol, the chemical compound that gives liquor its intoxicating punch. But other microbes may also be eating those sugars, making it more difficult for the mixture to reach the required alcohol content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56785\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 258px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/graph001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56785\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/graph001-258x169.jpg\" alt=\" Liquid chromatography measures ethanol and sugar peaks during fermentation. Click to enlarge.\" width=\"258\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liquid chromatography measures ethanol and sugar peaks during fermentation. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To ensure the consistency of each batch, Jeffrey carefully monitors the process using liquid chromatography, a chemistry technique that allows him to separate and measure each chemical component of the fermenting mixture. “We’re watching our ethanol peak go up and our sugar peak go down and making decisions about whether it’s time to pull it out because the bacteria are out-competing our yeast,” Jeffrey explains. “We run that line in every fermentation because we’re committed to this grain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that commitment to Washington Island grain that founder Ellison says sets Death’s Door apart. There are artisanal distilleries sprouting up all over the country, many of which are using locally-sourced ingredients. But it’s unlikely that many have such a strong association with a particular place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are relieved when they hear that Death’s Door is named after a real place and that there’s real people involved and real farming,” says Ellison. “It’s a story of real growth and a story of real rebirth in a rural place in America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-57338\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg\" alt=\"Wheat growing on Washington Island\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wheat growing on Washington Island. Photo Courtesy of Death's Door Distillery.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-56782\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340.jpg\" alt=\"deaths door bottle\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/deaths-door-bottle-620-340-400x200.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">Liquor may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term \"eating local.\" But distilleries in the Madison, Wisconsin area are helping to expand our notions of what can be made and consumed locally. These artisanal distillers are crafting spirits using locally-sourced ingredients like wheat for whiskey, apples for brandy and juniper for gin. Similar to area chefs that seek out homegrown foods for their recipes or the organizers of Madison's bustling farmers market, these spirit-makers are committed to supporting the region's small agricultural producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even knowing that, I was surprised to find a booth promoting community-supported agriculture at one of these distilleries during a recent visit. But there it was, right next to the kombucha stand, at \u003ca href=\"http://deathsdoorspirits.com/\">Death’s Door Distillery \u003c/a>in Middleton, WI. The occasion was the one year anniversary party for this state of the art facility that makes fine alcohols from locally-sourced organic grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve just been a really big supporter of our farms and of our organization as we try to connect growers and eaters,” Erika Jones of \u003ca href=\"http://www.csacoalition.org/\">Fair Share CSA Coalition \u003c/a>told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And drinkers!” she added when I reminded her of the setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56786\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 144px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Brian-Ellison001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56786\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Brian-Ellison001-144x169.jpg\" alt=\"Brian Ellison, Founder, Death's Door Distillery\" width=\"144\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Ellison, Founder, Death's Door Distillery\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporting local farms is at the heart of Death’s Door’s mission. “My background is in economic development — rural economic development,” explains founder Brian Ellison. “I got involved in this project to help restore agriculture back to Washington Island as part of a sustainable economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington Island lies just off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula, the “thumb” of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan. Death’s Door is the name of the sometimes treacherous passage between the two. Door County is sometimes called Wisconsin’s Cape Cod, which makes Washington Island something like Nantucket. And like that more famous island, Washington Island’s economy has become ever more dependent on tourism. But it wasn’t always this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 186px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/250px-DEATHS_DOOR1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/250px-DEATHS_DOOR1-186x169.png\" alt=\"Death's Door passage, Washington Island, Wisconsin\" width=\"186\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death's Door passage, Washington Island, Wisconsin\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At one time, the island had a thriving agricultural economy based on potatoes that were well known up and down the Lake Michigan coast. As transportation systems improved and produce was moved easily and cheaply across country, the island-grown potatoes couldn’t compete. The potato fields became vacation home lots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are at least 1,200 acres that won’t go into development anytime soon, however. Those are the fields where brothers Tom and Ken Koyne, fifth-generation islanders, grow organic red wheat for use in Death’s Door whiskey, gin and vodka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using organic ingredients for alcohol presents special challenges according to chief distiller John Jeffrey, “Because it’s organic, it tends to come in with a much higher microbial load than commercial grain.” Without the chemical pesticides used on many commercial crops, microbes are free to flourish. Those microbes sometimes compete with Death's Door's signature yeast, which is added to a mash made of island wheat and other grains during the fermentation process. It’s the yeast’s job to feast on the sugars in the grain mash and produce ethanol, the chemical compound that gives liquor its intoxicating punch. But other microbes may also be eating those sugars, making it more difficult for the mixture to reach the required alcohol content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56785\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 258px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/graph001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-56785\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/graph001-258x169.jpg\" alt=\" Liquid chromatography measures ethanol and sugar peaks during fermentation. Click to enlarge.\" width=\"258\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liquid chromatography measures ethanol and sugar peaks during fermentation. Click to enlarge.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To ensure the consistency of each batch, Jeffrey carefully monitors the process using liquid chromatography, a chemistry technique that allows him to separate and measure each chemical component of the fermenting mixture. “We’re watching our ethanol peak go up and our sugar peak go down and making decisions about whether it’s time to pull it out because the bacteria are out-competing our yeast,” Jeffrey explains. “We run that line in every fermentation because we’re committed to this grain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that commitment to Washington Island grain that founder Ellison says sets Death’s Door apart. There are artisanal distilleries sprouting up all over the country, many of which are using locally-sourced ingredients. But it’s unlikely that many have such a strong association with a particular place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are relieved when they hear that Death’s Door is named after a real place and that there’s real people involved and real farming,” says Ellison. “It’s a story of real growth and a story of real rebirth in a rural place in America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_57338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-57338\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg\" alt=\"Wheat growing on Washington Island\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/07/DSC03370-e1372446698711-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wheat growing on Washington Island. Photo Courtesy of Death's Door Distillery.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Living Machine: A Flush Worth Following",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56673 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg\" alt=\"Living Machine 045_2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Greenhouse plants are used to help filter wastewater from toilets at an Oberlin College building.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the small liberal arts campus of Oberlin College in Northeast Ohio, you would expect to see some funky hairdos, a smattering of fixed-gear bikes, and certainly some people strolling barefoot to class. But you might not expect to find their bathroom stalls peppered with “Poop Haikus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies\u003c/a>, musings on human excrement dominate the toilet landscape.\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-033-e1371132935788.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-56672\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-033-e1371132935788-233x169.jpg\" alt=\"Living Machine 033\" width=\"233\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">One student writes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 20pt;padding-right: 20pt;line-height: 110%\">\u003cem>“Normally I hate\u003cbr>\nPooping in a public place\u003cbr>\nHere I feel proud”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">Why the sense of pride? Because the building is a \u003ca href=\"http://www.livingmachines.com/About-Living-Machine/Water-Reuse.aspx\">Living Machine\u003c/a>. Literally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">It’s an in-house wastewater treatment and reuse system that mimics the processes of natural wetlands. Student (and faculty) poop fuels the machine, and the water used to flush it down is recycled over and over, after passing through an elaborate cleaning system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">An \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">electronic dashboard\u003c/a> displays the amount of recycled vs. city water used at any given moment in the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I toured “the machine” with biologist John Peterson and building manager Sean Hayes. We set out to follow the flush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first stop is an underground tank, full of—you guessed it—poop.“I think I just saw something coming in!” exclaimed Peterson after lifting the lid of the tank, and Hayes crouched down to confirm the turd sighting. This first tank is where the anaerobic action happens—microbes that don’t dig oxygen live here and start breaking down and converting the organic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the sludge travels to another underground tank, this one with a bubbler that aerates the system. A different set of bacteria hang out here and greedily munch on the carbs and proteins, further breaking down the mess. They’re also helping convert a key element, nitrogen, into a plant-friendly form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56725\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-054.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-56725\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-054-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Biologist John Peterson describes how the tropical plants suck up nitrogen and house beneficial bacteria in their roots. \" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biologist John Peterson describes how the tropical plants suck up nitrogen and house beneficial bacteria in their roots.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After this, the mixture heads indoors, into a series of open tanks in a greenhouse. You can watch the greenhouse live on a \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">webcam\u003c/a> (though I can’t say it’s compelling television). Big tropical plants sprout from the tanks; Calla Lilies are in bloom during my visit. The plants suck up nitrogen and their roots house more beneficial bacteria. In addition to burning up organic matter and removing pathogens, it’s important for \u003ca href=\"http://water.worldbank.org/shw-resource-guide/infrastructure/menu-technical-options/wastewater-treatment\">wastewater treatment\u003c/a> schemes to remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, which if released into the environment, contribute to harmful \u003ca href=\"http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/Centers/HABS/faqs_causes_habs.html\">algal blooms.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next stop is a gurgle through the clarifier basin—where the sludge settles and is sent back to the underground tanks to keep the microbe levels high—and then the clear water is piped underneath the gravel bed of the greenhouse. This is referred to as the “marsh.” Here, more anaerobic microbes finish the cleaning job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a toilet needs refilling—or the landscaping needs watering—the clean, treated water is passed through an ultraviolet light to kill any lingering pathogens, and then it’s put into action.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The water in the building’s toilets is slightly brown, but Peterson says it’s cleaner than much of the world’s drinking water.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The water in the building’s toilets is slightly brown, but Peterson says it’s cleaner than much of the world’s drinking water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Living Machine technology was invented by biologist John Todd in the late nineties (\u003ca href=\"http://permaculturenews.org/2013/04/29/john-todd-living-machines-lecture/\">hear\u003c/a> him talk about it), and versions of it are now in place in several buildings across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The usefulness of the technology here in Oberlin, where water isn’t scarce, is less about its practical benefits and more about the educational ones. Local schools organize field trips to see the machine at work, and college students organize campaigns to promote on-campus pooping. Even internet gazers get involved with interactive tools and webcams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It introduces the concept of internal recycling and systems-thinking, says Peterson. “It challenges people to think: what’s waste vs. what’s resource?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peterson says coming to this building is an experience—an experience that starts with a trip to the bathroom. As a friend of mine who had visited the campus proudly told me, “Yep, I made a contribution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Explore a waterless way to deal with human excrement: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/composting-toilet1.htm\">\u003cem>the composting toilet\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56673 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg\" alt=\"Living Machine 045_2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-045_21-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Greenhouse plants are used to help filter wastewater from toilets at an Oberlin College building.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the small liberal arts campus of Oberlin College in Northeast Ohio, you would expect to see some funky hairdos, a smattering of fixed-gear bikes, and certainly some people strolling barefoot to class. But you might not expect to find their bathroom stalls peppered with “Poop Haikus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies\u003c/a>, musings on human excrement dominate the toilet landscape.\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-033-e1371132935788.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-56672\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-033-e1371132935788-233x169.jpg\" alt=\"Living Machine 033\" width=\"233\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">One student writes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 20pt;padding-right: 20pt;line-height: 110%\">\u003cem>“Normally I hate\u003cbr>\nPooping in a public place\u003cbr>\nHere I feel proud”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">Why the sense of pride? Because the building is a \u003ca href=\"http://www.livingmachines.com/About-Living-Machine/Water-Reuse.aspx\">Living Machine\u003c/a>. Literally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">It’s an in-house wastewater treatment and reuse system that mimics the processes of natural wetlands. Student (and faculty) poop fuels the machine, and the water used to flush it down is recycled over and over, after passing through an elaborate cleaning system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">An \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">electronic dashboard\u003c/a> displays the amount of recycled vs. city water used at any given moment in the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I toured “the machine” with biologist John Peterson and building manager Sean Hayes. We set out to follow the flush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first stop is an underground tank, full of—you guessed it—poop.“I think I just saw something coming in!” exclaimed Peterson after lifting the lid of the tank, and Hayes crouched down to confirm the turd sighting. This first tank is where the anaerobic action happens—microbes that don’t dig oxygen live here and start breaking down and converting the organic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the sludge travels to another underground tank, this one with a bubbler that aerates the system. A different set of bacteria hang out here and greedily munch on the carbs and proteins, further breaking down the mess. They’re also helping convert a key element, nitrogen, into a plant-friendly form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_56725\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-054.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-56725\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Living-Machine-054-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Biologist John Peterson describes how the tropical plants suck up nitrogen and house beneficial bacteria in their roots. \" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biologist John Peterson describes how the tropical plants suck up nitrogen and house beneficial bacteria in their roots.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After this, the mixture heads indoors, into a series of open tanks in a greenhouse. You can watch the greenhouse live on a \u003ca href=\"http://buildingdashboard.net/oberlin/ajlc/#/oberlin/ajlc////\">webcam\u003c/a> (though I can’t say it’s compelling television). Big tropical plants sprout from the tanks; Calla Lilies are in bloom during my visit. The plants suck up nitrogen and their roots house more beneficial bacteria. 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This is referred to as the “marsh.” Here, more anaerobic microbes finish the cleaning job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a toilet needs refilling—or the landscaping needs watering—the clean, treated water is passed through an ultraviolet light to kill any lingering pathogens, and then it’s put into action.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The water in the building’s toilets is slightly brown, but Peterson says it’s cleaner than much of the world’s drinking water.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The water in the building’s toilets is slightly brown, but Peterson says it’s cleaner than much of the world’s drinking water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Living Machine technology was invented by biologist John Todd in the late nineties (\u003ca href=\"http://permaculturenews.org/2013/04/29/john-todd-living-machines-lecture/\">hear\u003c/a> him talk about it), and versions of it are now in place in several buildings across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The usefulness of the technology here in Oberlin, where water isn’t scarce, is less about its practical benefits and more about the educational ones. 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"disqusTitle": "Outsourcing Your Compost: Soil Without The Stink",
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"content": "\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/scrape4.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-55660\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/scrape4-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"scrape4\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday is trash/recycling day at my house. That means whatever is cleaned up in the kitchen after dinner goes right into the garbage and then out to the trash bin at the curb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55664\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 338px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bin3.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-55664 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bin3-338x253.jpg\" alt='\"American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy,\" according to the NRDC' width=\"338\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\"American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy,\" according to the NRDC\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scraps of food from plates, pieces of fat from the meat, the hard part from the head of lettuce, the coffee filter filled with grounds, the “icky looking” piece of carrot the kids didn’t want, etc. It all goes into the trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not like I was throwing away a lot of food scraps. But I’ve got to admit, as I rolled out the trash and recycling bins, I started wondering what else I could do with that food waste. My family already recycles. So do a lot of people in North Carolina. In fact, a new \u003ca title=\"Recycle North Carolina\" href=\"http://portal.ncdenr.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=4649434&folderId=9377383&name=DLFE-65922.pdf\">report \u003c/a>shows nearly 500,000 tons of household recyclables were diverted from North Carolina landfills last fiscal year. That’s about 300 pounds per capita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But my family, and the state, could still do more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to food waste, composting is an option. But let’s face it; composting is more complicated than recycling. For home composting to be effective and turn food waste into soil, it needs to be turned and treated. There’s also the smell issue as the food waste decomposes. In addition, some food wastes, such as bones, just won’t break down in small compost piles in the backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently, people around the country have the same questions and companies are cropping up to provide answers—and solutions. From Atlanta to Brooklyn entrepreneurs are pioneering services that make it simpler for people to compost. Fortunately for me, there’s a company based near my home in Raleigh, NC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Bucket3HQ.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft wp-image-55584\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Bucket3HQ-310x253.jpg\" alt=\"Bucket3HQ\" width=\"223\" height=\"182\">\u003c/a>It’s called \u003ca title=\"Compost Now\" href=\"http://compostnow.org\">CompostNow\u003c/a> and it is one of the first full-service, weekly doorstep compost services in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works: For $25/month, CompostNow picks up its customers' compost once a week and drops off two clean compost bins . For every 100 pounds of compost picked up a customer earns 50 pounds of soil. Customers can track how much soil has been earned on the company’s website. If a customer doesn’t need the soil it can be donated to a local community garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55458\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 614px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-55458 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-400x400.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-800x800.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Images Courtesy CompostNow\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re here to intercept food scraps from going to the landfill where it truly becomes waste, and redirect it to create the rich soil people have a hard time finding,” co-founder Dominique Bischof told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company estimates it has intercepted almost 50,000 pounds of compostable material since it launched about one year ago. That’s led to the creation of 25,000 pounds of Black Gold—or premium, nutrient-rich compost soil for its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CompostNow has about 200 customers throughout North Carolina’s Triangle communities. And it is adding new customers every week. Bischof says the biggest challenge is explaining why composting is important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people figure food scraps will decompose in a landfill so why bother to compost,” explained Bischof. “But landfill trash is so tightly compressed, food scraps won’t decompose properly. Without much air and water, food waste turns to methane gas, which is a major problem with green house emissions and global warming. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, methane gas has five times the green house effect of carbon dioxide gas. Bischof adds that even if it the food scraps did decompose, all that nutrient rich soil is trapped in a landfill where it is lost forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDrD2fLwsKE?feature=player_detailpage]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for what can be composted, Natalie Ross, a soil scientist with North Carolina State University has a good rule to follow:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/compst.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-55658\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/compst-309x253.jpg\" alt=\"compst\" width=\"309\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>“If it came from life it can be composted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means food scraps, fruit and vegetable skins, coffee grounds, paper towels, and tissues are all eligible to be dumped into the bins left by CompostNow drivers. An avid composter, Ross can personally vouch for the way compost soil makes her backyard garden grow. She also allays concerns about using soil made from household garbage:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Compost soil is moist and crumbly, it doesn’t smell and doesn’t contain any recognizable material, which is something people worry about,” says Ross.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Outsourcing Your Compost: Soil Without The Stink",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/scrape4.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-55660\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/scrape4-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"scrape4\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday is trash/recycling day at my house. That means whatever is cleaned up in the kitchen after dinner goes right into the garbage and then out to the trash bin at the curb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55664\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 338px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bin3.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-55664 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bin3-338x253.jpg\" alt='\"American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy,\" according to the NRDC' width=\"338\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\"American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy,\" according to the NRDC\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scraps of food from plates, pieces of fat from the meat, the hard part from the head of lettuce, the coffee filter filled with grounds, the “icky looking” piece of carrot the kids didn’t want, etc. It all goes into the trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not like I was throwing away a lot of food scraps. But I’ve got to admit, as I rolled out the trash and recycling bins, I started wondering what else I could do with that food waste. My family already recycles. So do a lot of people in North Carolina. In fact, a new \u003ca title=\"Recycle North Carolina\" href=\"http://portal.ncdenr.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=4649434&folderId=9377383&name=DLFE-65922.pdf\">report \u003c/a>shows nearly 500,000 tons of household recyclables were diverted from North Carolina landfills last fiscal year. That’s about 300 pounds per capita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But my family, and the state, could still do more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to food waste, composting is an option. But let’s face it; composting is more complicated than recycling. For home composting to be effective and turn food waste into soil, it needs to be turned and treated. There’s also the smell issue as the food waste decomposes. In addition, some food wastes, such as bones, just won’t break down in small compost piles in the backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently, people around the country have the same questions and companies are cropping up to provide answers—and solutions. From Atlanta to Brooklyn entrepreneurs are pioneering services that make it simpler for people to compost. Fortunately for me, there’s a company based near my home in Raleigh, NC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Bucket3HQ.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft wp-image-55584\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/Bucket3HQ-310x253.jpg\" alt=\"Bucket3HQ\" width=\"223\" height=\"182\">\u003c/a>It’s called \u003ca title=\"Compost Now\" href=\"http://compostnow.org\">CompostNow\u003c/a> and it is one of the first full-service, weekly doorstep compost services in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works: For $25/month, CompostNow picks up its customers' compost once a week and drops off two clean compost bins . For every 100 pounds of compost picked up a customer earns 50 pounds of soil. Customers can track how much soil has been earned on the company’s website. If a customer doesn’t need the soil it can be donated to a local community garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55458\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 614px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-55458 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-400x400.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-800x800.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/CN_HowItWorks-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Images Courtesy CompostNow\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re here to intercept food scraps from going to the landfill where it truly becomes waste, and redirect it to create the rich soil people have a hard time finding,” co-founder Dominique Bischof told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company estimates it has intercepted almost 50,000 pounds of compostable material since it launched about one year ago. That’s led to the creation of 25,000 pounds of Black Gold—or premium, nutrient-rich compost soil for its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CompostNow has about 200 customers throughout North Carolina’s Triangle communities. And it is adding new customers every week. Bischof says the biggest challenge is explaining why composting is important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people figure food scraps will decompose in a landfill so why bother to compost,” explained Bischof. “But landfill trash is so tightly compressed, food scraps won’t decompose properly. Without much air and water, food waste turns to methane gas, which is a major problem with green house emissions and global warming. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, methane gas has five times the green house effect of carbon dioxide gas. Bischof adds that even if it the food scraps did decompose, all that nutrient rich soil is trapped in a landfill where it is lost forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/sDrD2fLwsKE?feature=player_detailpage'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/sDrD2fLwsKE?feature=player_detailpage'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for what can be composted, Natalie Ross, a soil scientist with North Carolina State University has a good rule to follow:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/compst.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-55658\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/compst-309x253.jpg\" alt=\"compst\" width=\"309\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>“If it came from life it can be composted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means food scraps, fruit and vegetable skins, coffee grounds, paper towels, and tissues are all eligible to be dumped into the bins left by CompostNow drivers. An avid composter, Ross can personally vouch for the way compost soil makes her backyard garden grow. She also allays concerns about using soil made from household garbage:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Compost soil is moist and crumbly, it doesn’t smell and doesn’t contain any recognizable material, which is something people worry about,” says Ross.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Terroir of Tap",
"headTitle": "The Terroir of Tap | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp align=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-55136 aligncenter\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg\" alt=\"tap_featured\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>Dining at local restaurants is the usual strategy for exploring regional flavors, but it turns out that there’s another way to get a real taste for a place: turn on the tap. We know that tap water tastes different in different parts of the U.S., but what many of us don’t know is that the flavor variations are partly a reflection of local geology. And according to one Cleveland chef, the distinct make-up of regional waters doesn’t just impact the taste of the water we drink; it also plays an important role in shaping the taste of the local dishes themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52503\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 389px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/1-STEVE.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-52503 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/1-STEVE-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro, in front of his water filtration system.\" width=\"389\" height=\"259\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro, in front of his water filtration system.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">“In many, many recipes, water is a key ingredient and many times it might be 90 percent of the recipe, so it becomes more important,” says Steve Schimoler, owner and chef at \u003ca href=\"http://cropbistro.com/\">CROP Bistro\u003c/a>, a hip eatery in the Ohio City neighborhood. “As a chef, I go out of my way to procure the best ingredients for our menu. How could you not want the best water?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Despite the earthy connotation of the name CROP, it actually stands for something a bit more technological: “Custom Restaurant Operation Platform.” Schimoler, a former food scientist for industry titans like Nestle, opened CROP as a place to develop recipes that he tests on diners—and he uses the results to advise large restaurant chains. This year he’s turned his attention to taste-testing tap water.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Whether it’s myth or legend, everyone says New York bagel dough and pizza dough is so good because of the New York City water,” says Schimoler.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Whether it’s myth or legend, everyone says New York bagel dough and pizza dough is so good because of the New York City water,” says Schimoler, a native New Yorker who grew up on the city’s iconic foods. So Schimoler put the myth to the test. He made three pizza doughs – one with Cleveland tap, one with New York tap, and one with Reverse Osmosis water (a heavily filtered water, which Schimoler calls “pure H20”) – and presented them to his customers without identifying them. He left it up to his customers to decide which water he should use in his pizza dough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Schimoler refers to the variation in tap water flavor – the subtle difference between Cleveland tap and New York tap – with a rather high-brow culinary term: “You hear the word ‘terroir’ in wine and produce, where those ingredients are picking up the limey-ness, or the slate-ness, or whatever the environmental impact is within a region.” Schimoler believes water can have a slight, but powerful impact – one that can make or break the overall meal he serves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Deirdre Mueller of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.awwa.org/\">American Water Works Association\u003c/a> (AWWA), this “terroir” of tap is the result of a combination of factors, such as whether the source is surface water (e.g. a lake or river), or ground water (e.g. a deep aquifer). “If the water comes from an aquifer, it’s probably been deep underground for perhaps thousands of years and it’s buried in rock, so it could be more mineral-y. A lot of bottled water companies use aquifer water and say that it tastes fresher,” she says. That said, over the last few years, all of the winners of the AWWA’s annual \u003ca href=\"http://www.awwa.org/resources-tools/public-affairs/public-affairs-events/taste-test.aspx\">Tap Water Taste Tests\u003c/a> have been sourced from surface water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55339\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-55339 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg\" alt=\"Untreated Lake Erie water in filtered at the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant in Cleveland. \" width=\"346\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Untreated Lake Erie water is filtered at the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant in Cleveland.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Another factor affecting the taste of tap is a region’s location within a \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/whatis.cfm\">watershed\u003c/a>. Cities that are positioned near the top of a watershed, like Denver, receive water straight from the snowpack of surrounding mountains. Being close to the source, this water does not require many disinfectants to make it potable. However, like all public drinking water in the U.S., it is treated and tested to limit the amount of certain naturally-occurring minerals and microorganisms, along with other chemicals added by the water departments (\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/\">as mandated by the EPA\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">As water from the watershed heads downstream, its flavor often changes. “By the time water gets to cities in Southern California, for instance, it’s probably been through a handful of treatment processes in cities upstream,” says Mueller. The natural organic flavor in the water evolves into “more of a chemical taste.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Some regions require more chemical additives disinfectants than others to meet the EPA’s guidelines. The amount needed depends on environmental factors (like pollution levels) and regional health directives . In Cleveland, where Chef Schimoler’s kitchen lab is, that list includes fluoride, mandated by the state of Ohio to prevent cavities; chlorine, to kill bacteria; and orthophosphate, to help control lead corrosion in pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\"> “Regarding the taste, chlorine is one of the things that, I think, many people have a sensitivity to,” says Alex Margevicius, Interim Commissioner of \u003ca href=\"http://www.clevelandwater.com/\">Cleveland Water\u003c/a>. The EPA allows up to \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/disinfectants.cfm\">4 milligrams of chlorine per liter\u003c/a>. Cleveland Water, which sources its water from intake pipes 3-5 miles offshore in Lake Erie, currently adds 1 ½ milligrams per liter, to strike a balance between taste and safety. “Customers, in general, are more demanding than they were 20 years ago.” says Margevicius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54263\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 242px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/22/drinking-local-the-taste-of-tap/figi-water_ad-3/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-54263\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-54263 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/figi-water_ad2-302x360.jpg\" alt=\"This now-infamous Fiji Water ad caused quite a stir when is was published in 2006. \" width=\"242\" height=\"288\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fiji Water ad published in 2006.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They’re more demanding because tap water has had some fierce competition: over 9 billion gallons of bottled water are sold in the U.S. every year. But simply because something costs more, doesn’t mean it’s a better product. When Fiji Water released an ad poking fun at Cleveland’s historic water troubles by proclaiming “The Label Says Fiji Because It’s Not Bottled in Cleveland,” Cleveland Water shot back. “We kind of took offense to that,” says Cleveland Water Quality Manager Maggie Rodgers, who went on to test Fiji Water side-by-side with Cleveland tap, and other bottled water brands. “Low and behold, Fiji Water came back with arsenic at higher levels than our water or the other national brands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Health concerns aside, when it comes down to what we prefer to eat and drink, it’s all about taste. Back in his kitchen laboratory, Chef Steve Schimoler assesses the results of his own tests: “Surprisingly, the pizza dough made with New York tap water didn’t win, although, it’s purported to be the best,” he says. The consumers chose the pizza made with the heavily-filtered reverse osmosis water. “They were tasting what they thought they should taste: says Schimoler, “the yeast, the sweetness of the dough, the browning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Does this mean that filtered water tastes better than tap? Not necessarily. Schimoler acknowledges that when it comes to water, many factors can impact people’s taste preference – even marketing, “Now, if we labeled it New York [pizza], I bet a lot of people would pick New York just because they knew it was New York. So, it’s a little subjective.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp align=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-55136 aligncenter\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg\" alt=\"tap_featured\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/tap_featured-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>Dining at local restaurants is the usual strategy for exploring regional flavors, but it turns out that there’s another way to get a real taste for a place: turn on the tap. We know that tap water tastes different in different parts of the U.S., but what many of us don’t know is that the flavor variations are partly a reflection of local geology. And according to one Cleveland chef, the distinct make-up of regional waters doesn’t just impact the taste of the water we drink; it also plays an important role in shaping the taste of the local dishes themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52503\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 389px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/1-STEVE.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-52503 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/1-STEVE-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro, in front of his water filtration system.\" width=\"389\" height=\"259\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro, in front of his water filtration system.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">“In many, many recipes, water is a key ingredient and many times it might be 90 percent of the recipe, so it becomes more important,” says Steve Schimoler, owner and chef at \u003ca href=\"http://cropbistro.com/\">CROP Bistro\u003c/a>, a hip eatery in the Ohio City neighborhood. “As a chef, I go out of my way to procure the best ingredients for our menu. How could you not want the best water?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Despite the earthy connotation of the name CROP, it actually stands for something a bit more technological: “Custom Restaurant Operation Platform.” Schimoler, a former food scientist for industry titans like Nestle, opened CROP as a place to develop recipes that he tests on diners—and he uses the results to advise large restaurant chains. This year he’s turned his attention to taste-testing tap water.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Whether it’s myth or legend, everyone says New York bagel dough and pizza dough is so good because of the New York City water,” says Schimoler.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Whether it’s myth or legend, everyone says New York bagel dough and pizza dough is so good because of the New York City water,” says Schimoler, a native New Yorker who grew up on the city’s iconic foods. So Schimoler put the myth to the test. He made three pizza doughs – one with Cleveland tap, one with New York tap, and one with Reverse Osmosis water (a heavily filtered water, which Schimoler calls “pure H20”) – and presented them to his customers without identifying them. He left it up to his customers to decide which water he should use in his pizza dough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Schimoler refers to the variation in tap water flavor – the subtle difference between Cleveland tap and New York tap – with a rather high-brow culinary term: “You hear the word ‘terroir’ in wine and produce, where those ingredients are picking up the limey-ness, or the slate-ness, or whatever the environmental impact is within a region.” Schimoler believes water can have a slight, but powerful impact – one that can make or break the overall meal he serves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Deirdre Mueller of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.awwa.org/\">American Water Works Association\u003c/a> (AWWA), this “terroir” of tap is the result of a combination of factors, such as whether the source is surface water (e.g. a lake or river), or ground water (e.g. a deep aquifer). “If the water comes from an aquifer, it’s probably been deep underground for perhaps thousands of years and it’s buried in rock, so it could be more mineral-y. A lot of bottled water companies use aquifer water and say that it tastes fresher,” she says. That said, over the last few years, all of the winners of the AWWA’s annual \u003ca href=\"http://www.awwa.org/resources-tools/public-affairs/public-affairs-events/taste-test.aspx\">Tap Water Taste Tests\u003c/a> have been sourced from surface water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55339\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-55339 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg\" alt=\"Untreated Lake Erie water in filtered at the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant in Cleveland. \" width=\"346\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-1180x786.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/filter_lake_water-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Untreated Lake Erie water is filtered at the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant in Cleveland.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Another factor affecting the taste of tap is a region’s location within a \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/whatis.cfm\">watershed\u003c/a>. Cities that are positioned near the top of a watershed, like Denver, receive water straight from the snowpack of surrounding mountains. Being close to the source, this water does not require many disinfectants to make it potable. However, like all public drinking water in the U.S., it is treated and tested to limit the amount of certain naturally-occurring minerals and microorganisms, along with other chemicals added by the water departments (\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/\">as mandated by the EPA\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">As water from the watershed heads downstream, its flavor often changes. “By the time water gets to cities in Southern California, for instance, it’s probably been through a handful of treatment processes in cities upstream,” says Mueller. The natural organic flavor in the water evolves into “more of a chemical taste.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Some regions require more chemical additives disinfectants than others to meet the EPA’s guidelines. The amount needed depends on environmental factors (like pollution levels) and regional health directives . In Cleveland, where Chef Schimoler’s kitchen lab is, that list includes fluoride, mandated by the state of Ohio to prevent cavities; chlorine, to kill bacteria; and orthophosphate, to help control lead corrosion in pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\"> “Regarding the taste, chlorine is one of the things that, I think, many people have a sensitivity to,” says Alex Margevicius, Interim Commissioner of \u003ca href=\"http://www.clevelandwater.com/\">Cleveland Water\u003c/a>. The EPA allows up to \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/disinfectants.cfm\">4 milligrams of chlorine per liter\u003c/a>. Cleveland Water, which sources its water from intake pipes 3-5 miles offshore in Lake Erie, currently adds 1 ½ milligrams per liter, to strike a balance between taste and safety. “Customers, in general, are more demanding than they were 20 years ago.” says Margevicius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54263\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 242px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/22/drinking-local-the-taste-of-tap/figi-water_ad-3/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-54263\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-54263 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/figi-water_ad2-302x360.jpg\" alt=\"This now-infamous Fiji Water ad caused quite a stir when is was published in 2006. \" width=\"242\" height=\"288\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fiji Water ad published in 2006.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They’re more demanding because tap water has had some fierce competition: over 9 billion gallons of bottled water are sold in the U.S. every year. But simply because something costs more, doesn’t mean it’s a better product. When Fiji Water released an ad poking fun at Cleveland’s historic water troubles by proclaiming “The Label Says Fiji Because It’s Not Bottled in Cleveland,” Cleveland Water shot back. “We kind of took offense to that,” says Cleveland Water Quality Manager Maggie Rodgers, who went on to test Fiji Water side-by-side with Cleveland tap, and other bottled water brands. “Low and behold, Fiji Water came back with arsenic at higher levels than our water or the other national brands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Health concerns aside, when it comes down to what we prefer to eat and drink, it’s all about taste. Back in his kitchen laboratory, Chef Steve Schimoler assesses the results of his own tests: “Surprisingly, the pizza dough made with New York tap water didn’t win, although, it’s purported to be the best,” he says. The consumers chose the pizza made with the heavily-filtered reverse osmosis water. “They were tasting what they thought they should taste: says Schimoler, “the yeast, the sweetness of the dough, the browning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp align=\"left\">Does this mean that filtered water tastes better than tap? Not necessarily. Schimoler acknowledges that when it comes to water, many factors can impact people’s taste preference – even marketing, “Now, if we labeled it New York [pizza], I bet a lot of people would pick New York just because they knew it was New York. So, it’s a little subjective.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/17/fire-safety-without-harm/fire/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52484\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg\" alt=\"fire\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-52484\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, scientists and regulators from more than 20 countries gathered in San Francisco to discuss the latest research on flame retardants. \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/bfr2013_about.cfm\">The conference\u003c/a> lasted four days, but the theme of the meeting was clear from just a few talks: Do we need toxic chemicals to achieve fire safety?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past decade, scientists have voiced increasing concern about the potential health and environmental risks of these chemicals, which show up—and leach from—a growing number of consumer products. By now, most California consumers probably know that flame retardants permeate the foam in their couches and chairs, along with a surprising array of baby products. (On Monday, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Flame-retardants-to-be-removed-from-nap-mats-4436828.php\">San Francisco Chronicle noted\u003c/a> that at least some nap maps sold in the state will no longer contain flame retardants.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I reported yesterday in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flame-retardants-in-consumer-products-are-linked-to-health-and-cognitive-problems/2013/04/15/f5c7b2aa-8b34-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html\">story for the Washington Post\u003c/a>, mounting evidence suggests that these brominated chemicals pose risks to human health. Californians carry among the highest levels of flame retardants in the world, which researchers attribute to a 70s-era flammability standard that requires foam products to resist an open flame for 12 seconds. Manufacturers typically used flame retardants to comply and many tailored their products to California’s standard—and considerable market share—to avoid double inventories. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown, concerned about the risks the chemicals pose to human health, \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17598\">called on the state agency\u003c/a> in charge of flammability standards to find a way to ensure fire safety without the need for toxic flame retardants. In March, the agency held \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOjKKdZR_s&feature=youtu.be\">a public hearing\u003c/a> on its new standard, revised to do just that. The new regulations go into effect July 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2011, when I started \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">writing about flame retardants\u003c/a>, I’ve been struck by how the researchers studying these chemicals talk about their findings. Scientists tend to talk about their results in terms of what they don’t know and what new questions their studies raise. (All \u003ca href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weak-link-fossil-darwinius\">exceptions duly noted\u003c/a>.) And those studying flame retardants do discuss their findings with all the usual caveats. But they also do something else. They tell me, \"We don’t like what we’re seeing.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, I spoke with Heather Stapleton, a flame retardant expert at Duke University who’s pioneered methods to correlate levels of dust on people’s hands with levels found in their blood or urine. With two small children, a four-year-old son and a daughter who will be two next month, Stapleton said she thinks very carefully “as a mother and scientist” about the products she buys and washes her children’s hands frequently to reduce exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s particularly worried about people using hand-me-down nursing pillows and other baby products that likely exude more flame retardants as they age. “No one to my knowledge is examining infants’ exposure to flame retardants from these small items,” she said. “They’re small but an infant spends a lot of contact time with them.” What’s more, babies are likely to go from sleep positioner to a car seat to a changing table, spending the better part of a day in contact with products that could be leaching the chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week at the flame retardant conference, researchers talked about the global reach of these chemicals, now detected in trees, sludge, wildlife and people around the world. They listed the wide range of health effects associated with the well-studied brominated flame retardants—including endocrine disruption and developmental, neurological and reproductive defects—and emphasized that the effects have been found in both animals and humans. They also reported worrying early results on new formulations like tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), which is showing up in human breast milk and maternal cord blood samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, TBBPA was added mostly to electronics and circuit boards in a “reactive mode,” which means it’s unlikely to leach from the product. But as Linda Birnbaum pointed out at the meeting, it’s now being used as a replacement for banned or discontinued brominated flame retardants in an “additive mode”—so it can offgas, migrate from the product into the air. “Which means more is going to get into the environment,” Birnbaum said, “which means more is going to get into people and wildlife.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, reported that a two-year study of TBBPA in rats and mice found a dose-related increase in aggressive uterine tumors in the female rats—“these are highly malignant tumors that metastasize to many different sites,” she told the crowd—as well as liver tumors in male and female mice. These results suggest, she said, that TBBPA is a “two species carcinogen” that warrants closer study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months ago, Birnbaum told me that she used to think flame retardants were providing fire safety but now isn't so sure. She allows there may be applications that warrant them, like airplanes, but even then, she said, “If we think flame retardants are going to be helpful, why not use them in a reactive mode, so they don’t easily escape into the environment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, after seeing data showing rising levels of flame retardants in people along with animal evidence linking neurological effects to exposure early in life, Birnbaum called attention to the issue with a paper called \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241790/pdf/ehp0112-000009.pdf\">\"Brominated Flame Retardants: Cause for Concern?\" \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she said, “everything that is being seen in people when you look—and until recently, no one looked—is consistent with things that we’ve seen in animal models.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/BirnbaumPlenary.pdf\">weight of the evidence\u003c/a> inspired Birnbaum to write another paper. “I changed the question mark,” she said, “to an exclamation point.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/17/fire-safety-without-harm/fire/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52484\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg\" alt=\"fire\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-52484\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, scientists and regulators from more than 20 countries gathered in San Francisco to discuss the latest research on flame retardants. \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/bfr2013_about.cfm\">The conference\u003c/a> lasted four days, but the theme of the meeting was clear from just a few talks: Do we need toxic chemicals to achieve fire safety?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past decade, scientists have voiced increasing concern about the potential health and environmental risks of these chemicals, which show up—and leach from—a growing number of consumer products. By now, most California consumers probably know that flame retardants permeate the foam in their couches and chairs, along with a surprising array of baby products. (On Monday, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Flame-retardants-to-be-removed-from-nap-mats-4436828.php\">San Francisco Chronicle noted\u003c/a> that at least some nap maps sold in the state will no longer contain flame retardants.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I reported yesterday in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flame-retardants-in-consumer-products-are-linked-to-health-and-cognitive-problems/2013/04/15/f5c7b2aa-8b34-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html\">story for the Washington Post\u003c/a>, mounting evidence suggests that these brominated chemicals pose risks to human health. Californians carry among the highest levels of flame retardants in the world, which researchers attribute to a 70s-era flammability standard that requires foam products to resist an open flame for 12 seconds. Manufacturers typically used flame retardants to comply and many tailored their products to California’s standard—and considerable market share—to avoid double inventories. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown, concerned about the risks the chemicals pose to human health, \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17598\">called on the state agency\u003c/a> in charge of flammability standards to find a way to ensure fire safety without the need for toxic flame retardants. In March, the agency held \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOjKKdZR_s&feature=youtu.be\">a public hearing\u003c/a> on its new standard, revised to do just that. The new regulations go into effect July 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2011, when I started \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">writing about flame retardants\u003c/a>, I’ve been struck by how the researchers studying these chemicals talk about their findings. Scientists tend to talk about their results in terms of what they don’t know and what new questions their studies raise. (All \u003ca href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weak-link-fossil-darwinius\">exceptions duly noted\u003c/a>.) And those studying flame retardants do discuss their findings with all the usual caveats. But they also do something else. They tell me, \"We don’t like what we’re seeing.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, I spoke with Heather Stapleton, a flame retardant expert at Duke University who’s pioneered methods to correlate levels of dust on people’s hands with levels found in their blood or urine. With two small children, a four-year-old son and a daughter who will be two next month, Stapleton said she thinks very carefully “as a mother and scientist” about the products she buys and washes her children’s hands frequently to reduce exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s particularly worried about people using hand-me-down nursing pillows and other baby products that likely exude more flame retardants as they age. “No one to my knowledge is examining infants’ exposure to flame retardants from these small items,” she said. “They’re small but an infant spends a lot of contact time with them.” What’s more, babies are likely to go from sleep positioner to a car seat to a changing table, spending the better part of a day in contact with products that could be leaching the chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week at the flame retardant conference, researchers talked about the global reach of these chemicals, now detected in trees, sludge, wildlife and people around the world. They listed the wide range of health effects associated with the well-studied brominated flame retardants—including endocrine disruption and developmental, neurological and reproductive defects—and emphasized that the effects have been found in both animals and humans. They also reported worrying early results on new formulations like tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), which is showing up in human breast milk and maternal cord blood samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, TBBPA was added mostly to electronics and circuit boards in a “reactive mode,” which means it’s unlikely to leach from the product. But as Linda Birnbaum pointed out at the meeting, it’s now being used as a replacement for banned or discontinued brominated flame retardants in an “additive mode”—so it can offgas, migrate from the product into the air. “Which means more is going to get into the environment,” Birnbaum said, “which means more is going to get into people and wildlife.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, reported that a two-year study of TBBPA in rats and mice found a dose-related increase in aggressive uterine tumors in the female rats—“these are highly malignant tumors that metastasize to many different sites,” she told the crowd—as well as liver tumors in male and female mice. These results suggest, she said, that TBBPA is a “two species carcinogen” that warrants closer study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months ago, Birnbaum told me that she used to think flame retardants were providing fire safety but now isn't so sure. She allows there may be applications that warrant them, like airplanes, but even then, she said, “If we think flame retardants are going to be helpful, why not use them in a reactive mode, so they don’t easily escape into the environment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, after seeing data showing rising levels of flame retardants in people along with animal evidence linking neurological effects to exposure early in life, Birnbaum called attention to the issue with a paper called \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241790/pdf/ehp0112-000009.pdf\">\"Brominated Flame Retardants: Cause for Concern?\" \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she said, “everything that is being seen in people when you look—and until recently, no one looked—is consistent with things that we’ve seen in animal models.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/BirnbaumPlenary.pdf\">weight of the evidence\u003c/a> inspired Birnbaum to write another paper. “I changed the question mark,” she said, “to an exclamation point.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Bay Area Biotech Industry Braces for Gene Patenting Court Case",
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"content": "\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/quest/2013/04/20130415science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area biotechnology companies are keeping an eye on the nation’s highest court. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a case on a key question: can you patent a human gene?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study estimates that close to half of human genes identified so far are already patented. The court’s ruling could put millions of dollars at stake for Bay Area universities and biotech companies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue are two genes related to breast and ovarian cancer, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2013/04/12/breast-cancer-gene-mutations-at-heart-of-supreme-court-case/#more-12082\">BRCA 1 and BRCA 2\u003c/a>. Women with mutations in these genes are five to eight times more likely to develop breast cancer. To gauge that risk, patients often get a genetic test. It’s one of the most common tests that genetic counselors handle, like Julie Mak at\u003ca href=\"http://cancer.ucsf.edu/\"> UCSF’s Cancer Center\u003c/a>in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52321\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/sequencing.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-52321 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/sequencing-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Preparation for DNA sequencing (Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preparation for DNA sequencing (Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it opens up a very loaded set of questions for people who are sometimes very young,” says Mak. “As you can imagine, the things we talk about with people are very serious and sometimes stressful and upsetting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blood or saliva sample can tell a woman if she has those mutations, but that test isn’t run at UCSF. “For most BRCA 1 and 2 testing, the lab in Utah is the only one that does this testing,” Mak says, referring to Myriad Genetics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.myriad.com/\">Myriad Genetics\u003c/a> holds patents on not only the test, but the actual genes themselves. That means one company has a monopoly on those genes and theoretically controls what can be done with them. That’s what’s being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural or Not?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people wonder: how can you patent a gene?” says Mildred Cho, associate director of the \u003ca href=\"http://bioethics.stanford.edu/\">Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case, the ACLU is arguing that genes aren’t patentable because they’re naturally occurring -- they’re found inside our bodies. According to patent law, “products of nature are not patentable,” Cho says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myriad Genetics argues that by extracting a specific gene and isolating it, it turns into a man-made invention, which makes it patentable. “In order to analyze to DNA, you have to break open the cells and break the DNA up in to little pieces,” Cho explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal complexities aside, Cho says it has real effects on our healthcare decision, like getting a second opinion. “No laboratory has 100 percent accuracy and so you would ideally want to have a lab result that’s really important confirmed by another lab,” she says. “You can’t do that if there are patents on that lab test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Questions of Open Access\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patents can also affect genetic research, according to UCSF professor Dr. Robert Nusssbaum. When I meet him in his office, he’s wearing a button pinned to his shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So my button says ‘free the data,'” he points out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since DNA doesn’t come with an instruction manual that reveals if a genetic mutation is harmful or not, the only way to find out is to compare it to thousands of other genetic tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way to make that happen faster is for all the laboratories to pool all their information in one place and all have access to it,” Nussbaum says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is sharing. “There are a couple of laboratories, and Myriad is one of them, that have decided that since they had the patent on testing, that they would keep their data locked up as intellectual property,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Nussbaum has organized an \u003ca href=\"http://www.sharingclinicalreports.org/\">open source database\u003c/a> that holds genetic data about breast cancer mutations, free for researchers to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In terms of gene testing, I think patents are of no value, period,” says Nussbaum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Basis of Biotech\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patents are a very important, fundamental part of the foundation on which the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical industry has been built,” says Sean Johnston, general counsel at \u003ca href=\"http://www.gene.com/\">Genentech\u003c/a> in South San Francisco, one of the largest biotech companies in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Genentech use genetic information to develop drugs and treatments, in addition to genetic diagnostic tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Biotech and biopharmaceutical companies have relied upon patent protection to justify the significant investment, the risk-taking and the innovation that is necessary to develop new drugs,” Johnston says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnston says it often takes a billion dollars to bring a drug to market, an investment that could be tougher to make without the protection of gene patents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a matter that if the court were to rule broadly our business would be destroyed,” Johnston says. “But in theory I think it has the potential to be very disruptive to the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Universities in the Middle\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biotech companies here aren’t the only ones watching this case. The University of California as a whole is one of the top ten gene patent holders in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Universities are often accused of patenting solely for the purpose of getting financial gain,” says Karin Immergluck of UCSF’s Office of Technology Management. The office handles several hundred gene patents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UCSF’s first goal is to translate our really exciting, cutting-edge technologies into products and services that will benefit the public,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university walks a fine line. Companies pay millions of dollars a year to use its patents, like the one related to human growth hormone. But the court case brings up issue in licensing patents that universities already grappling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, making sure the rights aren’t completely locked up in one company so that underinsured patients don’t have access,” says Immergluck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patient access, biotech industry profits and innovation could all be affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling. It’s expected in June.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bay Area biotechnology companies are keeping an eye on the nation’s highest court. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a case on a key question: can you patent a human gene?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study estimates that close to half of human genes identified so far are already patented. The court’s ruling could put millions of dollars at stake for Bay Area universities and biotech companies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue are two genes related to breast and ovarian cancer, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2013/04/12/breast-cancer-gene-mutations-at-heart-of-supreme-court-case/#more-12082\">BRCA 1 and BRCA 2\u003c/a>. Women with mutations in these genes are five to eight times more likely to develop breast cancer. To gauge that risk, patients often get a genetic test. It’s one of the most common tests that genetic counselors handle, like Julie Mak at\u003ca href=\"http://cancer.ucsf.edu/\"> UCSF’s Cancer Center\u003c/a>in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52321\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/sequencing.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-52321 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/sequencing-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Preparation for DNA sequencing (Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preparation for DNA sequencing (Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it opens up a very loaded set of questions for people who are sometimes very young,” says Mak. “As you can imagine, the things we talk about with people are very serious and sometimes stressful and upsetting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blood or saliva sample can tell a woman if she has those mutations, but that test isn’t run at UCSF. “For most BRCA 1 and 2 testing, the lab in Utah is the only one that does this testing,” Mak says, referring to Myriad Genetics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.myriad.com/\">Myriad Genetics\u003c/a> holds patents on not only the test, but the actual genes themselves. That means one company has a monopoly on those genes and theoretically controls what can be done with them. That’s what’s being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural or Not?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people wonder: how can you patent a gene?” says Mildred Cho, associate director of the \u003ca href=\"http://bioethics.stanford.edu/\">Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case, the ACLU is arguing that genes aren’t patentable because they’re naturally occurring -- they’re found inside our bodies. According to patent law, “products of nature are not patentable,” Cho says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myriad Genetics argues that by extracting a specific gene and isolating it, it turns into a man-made invention, which makes it patentable. “In order to analyze to DNA, you have to break open the cells and break the DNA up in to little pieces,” Cho explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal complexities aside, Cho says it has real effects on our healthcare decision, like getting a second opinion. “No laboratory has 100 percent accuracy and so you would ideally want to have a lab result that’s really important confirmed by another lab,” she says. “You can’t do that if there are patents on that lab test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Questions of Open Access\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patents can also affect genetic research, according to UCSF professor Dr. Robert Nusssbaum. When I meet him in his office, he’s wearing a button pinned to his shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So my button says ‘free the data,'” he points out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since DNA doesn’t come with an instruction manual that reveals if a genetic mutation is harmful or not, the only way to find out is to compare it to thousands of other genetic tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way to make that happen faster is for all the laboratories to pool all their information in one place and all have access to it,” Nussbaum says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is sharing. “There are a couple of laboratories, and Myriad is one of them, that have decided that since they had the patent on testing, that they would keep their data locked up as intellectual property,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Nussbaum has organized an \u003ca href=\"http://www.sharingclinicalreports.org/\">open source database\u003c/a> that holds genetic data about breast cancer mutations, free for researchers to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In terms of gene testing, I think patents are of no value, period,” says Nussbaum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Basis of Biotech\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patents are a very important, fundamental part of the foundation on which the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical industry has been built,” says Sean Johnston, general counsel at \u003ca href=\"http://www.gene.com/\">Genentech\u003c/a> in South San Francisco, one of the largest biotech companies in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Genentech use genetic information to develop drugs and treatments, in addition to genetic diagnostic tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Biotech and biopharmaceutical companies have relied upon patent protection to justify the significant investment, the risk-taking and the innovation that is necessary to develop new drugs,” Johnston says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnston says it often takes a billion dollars to bring a drug to market, an investment that could be tougher to make without the protection of gene patents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a matter that if the court were to rule broadly our business would be destroyed,” Johnston says. “But in theory I think it has the potential to be very disruptive to the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Universities in the Middle\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biotech companies here aren’t the only ones watching this case. The University of California as a whole is one of the top ten gene patent holders in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Universities are often accused of patenting solely for the purpose of getting financial gain,” says Karin Immergluck of UCSF’s Office of Technology Management. The office handles several hundred gene patents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UCSF’s first goal is to translate our really exciting, cutting-edge technologies into products and services that will benefit the public,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university walks a fine line. Companies pay millions of dollars a year to use its patents, like the one related to human growth hormone. But the court case brings up issue in licensing patents that universities already grappling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, making sure the rights aren’t completely locked up in one company so that underinsured patients don’t have access,” says Immergluck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patient access, biotech industry profits and innovation could all be affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling. It’s expected in June.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Comets May Have Delivered Life's Early Building Blocks",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50736\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50736\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\" alt=\"NASA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building blocks of life on Earth may have originated in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemists at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, Manoa have found the complex compounds essential for life can be forged in the vacuum of space. The linked pairs of amino acids, called dipeptides, may have hitched a ride to Earth on comets and meteorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first biological molecules had an extraterrestrial origin,” explains UC Berkeley chemistry Professor Richard Mathies, coauthor of the study. “That means life on Earth was inseminated by these depositions of comets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question has fascinated people on Earth for centuries, Mathies says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long believed amino acids formed in the planet’s early oceans (think Primordial Soup). A 1952 experiment proved this. In what’s known as the Miller-Urey experiment, scientists put water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen in a series of glass tubes, electrocuted the mix (to simulate lightning) and watched it turn pink overnight as it all combined to form amino acids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have also found amino acids on meteorites that have collided with Earth, but not the more complex compounds required for this planet’s biology, so they have defaulted on the assumption that these biological precursors formed in the ocean. But Mathies’s study, scheduled for publication March 10 in \u003cem>The Astrophysical Journal\u003c/em>, turns this assumption on its head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While scientists know early Earth got its water and some hydrocarbons from comets, it hasn't been clear until now what catalyzed the creation of more complex compounds. Mathies's experiment suggests cosmic rays are the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hawaii, Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser simulated a comet, an icy snowball in space, by chilling a small silver “puck” in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. These pucks, about 10 mm in diameter by a few millimeters thick, were covered with a molecule-thin layer of carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, ethane and propane. Then the researchers nuked the mixture with simulated cosmic rays, in this case high-energy electrons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser FedExed the pucks back to Berkeley, where Mathies and Amanda Stockton analyzed them in a machine called the Mars Organic Analyzer which Mathies built to detect small organic molecules in our solar system. He found nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides, the precursor compounds for proteins, enzymes and sugars, all of which make Earth biology possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results suggest that means cosmic rays were irradiating comets for much longer than the billion or so years life on Earth has existed, Mathies said. It’s possible, he said, that this happened on other planets, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next step is to actually find these dipeptides in space, since comets that have landed on Earth would be immediately contaminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mathies said the suitcase-sized Mars Organic Analyzer can be launched into space on a rocket to pass through a comet tail and collect dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be the ultimate proof,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50736\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50736\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\" alt=\"NASA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building blocks of life on Earth may have originated in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemists at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, Manoa have found the complex compounds essential for life can be forged in the vacuum of space. The linked pairs of amino acids, called dipeptides, may have hitched a ride to Earth on comets and meteorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first biological molecules had an extraterrestrial origin,” explains UC Berkeley chemistry Professor Richard Mathies, coauthor of the study. “That means life on Earth was inseminated by these depositions of comets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question has fascinated people on Earth for centuries, Mathies says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long believed amino acids formed in the planet’s early oceans (think Primordial Soup). A 1952 experiment proved this. In what’s known as the Miller-Urey experiment, scientists put water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen in a series of glass tubes, electrocuted the mix (to simulate lightning) and watched it turn pink overnight as it all combined to form amino acids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have also found amino acids on meteorites that have collided with Earth, but not the more complex compounds required for this planet’s biology, so they have defaulted on the assumption that these biological precursors formed in the ocean. But Mathies’s study, scheduled for publication March 10 in \u003cem>The Astrophysical Journal\u003c/em>, turns this assumption on its head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While scientists know early Earth got its water and some hydrocarbons from comets, it hasn't been clear until now what catalyzed the creation of more complex compounds. Mathies's experiment suggests cosmic rays are the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hawaii, Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser simulated a comet, an icy snowball in space, by chilling a small silver “puck” in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. These pucks, about 10 mm in diameter by a few millimeters thick, were covered with a molecule-thin layer of carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, ethane and propane. Then the researchers nuked the mixture with simulated cosmic rays, in this case high-energy electrons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser FedExed the pucks back to Berkeley, where Mathies and Amanda Stockton analyzed them in a machine called the Mars Organic Analyzer which Mathies built to detect small organic molecules in our solar system. He found nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides, the precursor compounds for proteins, enzymes and sugars, all of which make Earth biology possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results suggest that means cosmic rays were irradiating comets for much longer than the billion or so years life on Earth has existed, Mathies said. It’s possible, he said, that this happened on other planets, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next step is to actually find these dipeptides in space, since comets that have landed on Earth would be immediately contaminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mathies said the suitcase-sized Mars Organic Analyzer can be launched into space on a rocket to pass through a comet tail and collect dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be the ultimate proof,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
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"soldout": {
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