The state of Hawaii of the United States is one of the most progressive ones when it comes to environmental protection policies. The state legislature has introduced a new bill which seeks to implement complete renewable transportation by 2045.

This goal joins the currently implemented target of having all the energy utilities in Hawaii coming from renewable sources also by 2045. The renewable transportation bill is being supported by the Blue Planet Foundation. Jeff Mikulina, the director of the organization, has stated that Hawaii needs to develop a proper vision for its future of transportation, as currently, the majority of fossil fuels go to the transportation industry.

The new renewable transportation bill would not require that the residents of the state discard their fossil fuel-powered cars, at least not yet. This sentiment was emphasized by Representative Chris Lee, the chairman of the Energy and Environment house committee.

Nonetheless, the bill proposes a somewhat ambitious goal, especially in a state where out of an estimated 1 million cars on the road, there are only around 5,000 electric cars. Unfortunately, Hawaii is not a big enough market to decide the trends of the auto industry and, as such, the state is somewhat dependent on the decision they make. Therefore, the new renewable transportation bill does not impose a strict mandate, just a relative goal.

Some of the details of the bill are still being worked out since its introduction into the state legislature. It remains to be seen if it will pass or not, as Hawaii seems keen on becoming a trend setter for renewable energy despite the fact that new US president favors more conventional sources of energy.

In addition to the transportation bill, lawmakers have also introduced a new bill which seeks to increase the required number of charging stations across the state. Currently, there is only one station for every 100 parking spaces. This bill could help incentivize more residents to purchase electric cars, as they would have more charging options.

The renewable transportation bill is also supported by local auto dealerships, but the move to electric cars will require a massive marketing campaign in order to convince residents about its benefits.

Image source: Wikimedia

A team of scientists managed to create the first stable semisynthetic organism, an achievement based on many years of work and which could open up many new paths.

Three years ago, a team of researchers reported a breakthrough. They presented the first organism with 6 bases. The genetic base of all the DNA-based life forms is based on four bases. These are A, T, G, and C. Or more exactly, adenine and thymine. And also guanine and cytosine.

In 2014, the scientists presented an organism that had 6 bases. Four of them, the aforementioned ones, were natural. The other two were artificial. They were titled X and Y.

The research team is part of the La Jolla, California Scripps Research Institute. They were led by Floyd Romesberg. At the time, the researchers were able to incorporate their new base pair. This was introduced into an E. coli bacterium. Still, the ensuing organism did not maintain the pair. It was eliminated during the division process.

The X and Y were slowly dropped. And the extra information they left behind was limited. Even though the DNA was modified, the data was left incomplete.

Now, Romesberg and his team beat the process. They were able to create the first stable semisynthetic organism. This is also a modified bacterium.

A research paper on the matter was released earlier this week. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Available online since January 23, it is titled as follows. “A semisynthetic organism engineered for the stable expansion of the genetic alphabet”.

The stable semisynthetic organism was seen to be able to retain its synthetic base. They have remained in the DNA after the division process. This modified bacterium is based on three pairs. They are A-T, C-G, and the new X-Y.

Romesberg went to offer some details. According to him, the first semisynthetic organism had an unstable genome. This latter has to be stable throughout the lifespan. And not just for a day.

This first stable semisynthetic organism is able to do so. It has managed to maintain its extra information. As such, Romesberg declared that they have made it more life-like.

Researchers used a nucleotide transporter. This helped them create the modified bacterium. With help from the transporter, the semisynthetic organism was able to hold on to the X-Y pair. As it was maintained, the added pair was also copied. And it then distributed across the cell membrane.

CRISPR-Cas9 was used in order to test the results. This is a gene-editing tool. With it, the scientists analyzed the now stable semisynthetic organism.

They looked for cells containing the synthetic base. Such cells could have been marked as foreign. Because of this, the organism would have destroyed them.

For the moment, the added synthetic bases just exist. The stable semisynthetic organism has no utility for them. This fact has been specifically programmed. First of all, the scientists meant to determine if the bases could just survive.

It remains to be seen if the microbes will be imbued with the power to read the added code. Or when they may be determined to do so. According to the researchers, the current organism is a breakthrough in itself.

And making them read the code could open up a new path. It may help create protein currently unavailable in nature. As such, new medicine and drugs could be developed.

More research on the matter is nonetheless needed. Presently, the researchers pointed out the following fact. The study can be considered the foundation for future research and discoveries.

Image Source: Flickr

Our planet’s ocean holds a myriad of marine ecosystems which many remain unexplored. As such, it is no surprise that scientists are able to find new species of marine animals every so often. Among one of the most recently discovered species is the ruby seadragon which was even captured on video for the first time.

Until now, scientists have discovered a total of three species of seadragons, the Common, Leafy and the Ruby seadragon. However, the first two species are quite well documented and were observed in their natural system plenty of times, the ruby seadragon proved more elusive.

Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, in collaboration with scientists from the Western Australian Museum have conducted a scientific expedition to film the mysterious animals in the wild, just off the coast of Western Australia.

The research team used a small remotely operated vehicle, equipped with a camera, to explore the waters at around 164-feet deep. It was only several days of exploring that the researchers were able to capture the first sightings of the mysterious species in the wild. They filmed two Ruby Seadragons near the Recherche Archipelago of Western Australia, and the scientists have new information regarding their habitat, behavior, and anatomy.

The captured seadragons lead to the conclusion that the Ruby Seadragon lacks the ornate appendages which are similar to leafs. They once thought that this characteristic was found among all seadragons, based on the findings in the previously analyzed Common and Leafy subspecies. They use the appendages to camouflage in seaweed or kelp meadows as a way to avoid predators.

Scientists became aware of the Ruby seadragon subspecies due to preserved specimens that were collected around a hundred years ago. Although the remains were initially misidentified as belonging to the Common or Leafy Seadragons, the researchers were able to discern that it’s a new subspecies as they assembled a rotating 3D model of the animals using a computer tomography scan from more than 5,000 X-ray slices. They were particularly intrigued by the lack of the leafy appendages.

However, the only way to confirm the existence of the Ruby Seadragon was to actually observe in the wild. The research team accomplished their objective by partnering with Total Marine Technology, ROV company based in Australia.

Image source: Scripps Oceanography/UC San Diego

Scientists have developed a new way of creating artificial spider silk using protein molecules. By using only 10 rice grains’ weight they can produce up to 1,5 miles of thread which is almost as strong as the natural fiber. Spider silk is known for its amazing properties but harvesting and applying it in real-life situations have proven difficult and expensive.

A team of international researchers from Spain, Sweden, the UK, and China has built a spinning device by taking inspiration from the spider anatomy. The machine is able to create synthetic silk more efficiently than any spider while still maintaining its amazing properties such as being stronger than Kevlar and being 30 times thinner than a human hair. Furthermore, the artificial silk is easier overall to produce and harvest, thus making it considerably cheaper than the real thing.

The study, published in the journal Natural Chemical Biology, reveals that the natural spider silk is made of several protein molecules commonly known as spidroins. They can be found in the spider’s silk glands and can be found in a very concentrated solution.

When the spider wants to release the web, the solution is squeezed through a small duct with an acidic and high-pressure environment which forces the molecules to link together and form the spider silk. As you know, spiders use it to create their webs which wouldn’t be possible if the silk wasn’t strong and had very low density.

Researchers experienced difficulties replicating the process the spider used. They were able to synthesize the spidroin protein molecules by programming bacteria and yeast to produce it but had trouble linking the molecules together into the fiber. However, they were able to create the artificial spider silk by developing their own narrow duct from what is known as a glass capillary tube measuring only 10 to 30 microns wide at the tip.

The researchers were successful in creating 125 milligrams of protein molecules using a liter of bacterial culture. As the molecules linked together, the researchers ended up with a km of silk from just their initial liter of bacterial culture. Despite being somewhat inferior to the natural silk, their silk was still superior in strength and elasticity than all other previous attempts at replicating the natural material.

Image source: Pixabay

Insects capable of flight also migrate around the world depending the season, similar to birds. However, until now, not much was known regarding their numbers since they are hard to spot and count. Thanks to a new study, south-central England is the site where over 3 trillion flying bugs pass through.

The study which offered a rough approximation of the number of migratory flying bugs across this area in England was published in the journal Science, by a team of researchers led by Jason Chapman, a University of Exeter entomologist.

Chapman states that scientists mostly ignore the migratory patterns of insects, except that of the monarch butterfly, as they focus on more charismatic birds such as the Arctic tern, and others. However, flying bugs deserve being properly studied due to their immense potential of having either a positive or negative impact on the environment.

Chapman also went on to say that due to England’s relatively cold and damp climate, repeating the experiment in other regions of the world would very likely exceed the 3 trillion number of flying bugs found to travel through England.

For their study, the researchers monitored the seasonal migratory patterns of various insects such as the marmalade hoverfly among others. Flying bugs can be especially hard to count, due to their size and the altitudes they fly at. As such, Chapman and his colleagues had to resort to a number of specialized tools like narrow beams of radar which were pointed to the sky to spot bigger insects while using nets attached on small blimps to sample the smaller insects which fly at lower altitudes.

Besides offering an approximate number of insects that migrate throughout the south-central part of England, the researchers also discovered that migration mostly happens during daytime. Noting the lack of similar studies for other regions in the world, Chapman hopes to eventually see an increased interest in the migratory patterns of insects around the planet, as they carry both diseases as well as nutrients with them.

The study provides important data to scientists interest in learning how diseases can appear in regions, even without humans transporting them.

What do you think about the migratory patterns of flying bugs across England? Are you surprised at a number of insects?

Image source: Pixabay