International Headlines: Science and the Environment

Transparent Solar Cells Could Turn Your Windows Into Power SourcesBusiness Insider October 14, 2015

A Michigan State team created the transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC), which employs organic salts to absorb wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye. By steering clear of the fundamental challenges of creating a transparent photovoltaic cell, researchers were able to harness the power of infrared and ultraviolet light. Semi-transparent solar cells achieved the higher efficiency of seven percent (versus five percent for TLSC) but cast light in colored shadows. While numbers like seven and five percent efficiency seem low, houses featuring fully solar windows or buildings could compound that electricity and bring it to a more useful level. The researchers on the Michigan State team believe their TLSC technology could span from industrial applications to consumer devices and handheld gadgets. Their main priorities in continuing to develop the technology appear to be power efficiency and maintaining a scalable level of affordability, so that solar power can continue to grow as a major player in the field of renewable energy.

Deep-Sea Bacteria Could Help Neutralize Greenhouse Gas Science Daily October 22, 2015

A type of bacteria from the bottom of the ocean could be put to work neutralizing carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, a group of University of Florida researchers has found. Carbon dioxide can be captured and neutralized in a process known as sequestration, but converting the carbon dioxide into a harmless compound requires a durable, heat-tolerant enzyme. That's where the bacterium, Thiomicrospira crunogena, which produces an enzyme that helps remove carbon dioxide in organisms comes in. The bacterium lives near hydrothermal vents, so the enzyme works in high temperatures. Although it can be produced in laboratories using a genetically engineered version of the common E. coli bacteria, much larger quantities would be needed than is currently possible to create to neutralize carbon dioxide on an industrial scale. Furthermore, the current form is inefficient, but it is a good candidate for further study. Researchers hope to produce a variant of the enzyme that is both heat-tolerant and fast-acting enough that it can be used in industrial settings. They also want to study ways to increase the enzyme's stability and longevity, which are important issues to be addressed before the it could be put into widespread industrial use.

The Pacific Is About to Get a Massive New Ocean Reserve National Geographic October 22, 2015

Palau is moving forward with creating a reserve that's about 193,000 square miles (500,000 sq km) in size. This would make it one of the five largest fully protected marine areas in the world. Palau's Congress signed off on keeping 80% of its territorial waters from any extractive activities, including fishing and mining. The remaining 20% will remain open to fishing by locals and a limited number of small commercial operations. President Tommy Remengesau Jr. plans to sign the measure which will make the protected area official. Palauans have a long history of bul, or setting aside smaller reef areas during fish spawning and feeding periods as a way of giving those populations time to recover from fishing practices. The federal government has now effectively extended that practice to encompass the majority of the country's ocean.The government is still working out the details when it comes to enforcement of their new marine reserve. The nation has no military and only one law enforcement ship, but "Palau is serious about enforcing their laws and protecting their resources," says Enric Sala, a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence and head of the Pristine Seas project.

France's Plan to Increase Its Soil Carbon Is An Example to the World Ecologist October 17, 2015

France wants to raise the amount of carbon in its soils by 0.4% a year. Soil stores vast amounts of carbon, and the increase would have a significant impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. French agriculture minister Stéphane Le Foll hopes that protecting carbon-rich soils, better use of organic manures and farming that returns more plant biomass to the soil, together with the use of bioenergy crops, can contribute towards a 40% reduction in France's CO2 emissions by 2030. He will propose an international program to promote increases in soil carbon during UN climate talks in Paris. Such a program would include research, innovation and engagement with farmers. Maintaining and restoring bogs, avoiding conversion of grassland and forestry to arable land should be the first priority, then increasing the amount of carbon in our soils  which has the potential to suck even more CO2 out of the atmosphere by re-converting arable land to grassland would all have a positive effect on soil carbon stocks. CO2 stored in the soil helps to mitigate climate change, and it has numerous other benefits.

Tu Youyou: How Mao’s Challenge to Malaria Pioneer Led to Nobel Prize The Guardian October 6, 2015

Tu Youyou is one of three scientists this year awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug that improves on the drug chloroquine, which has become far less effective over time in treating malaria as parasites develop resistance. The drug has helped slash malaria mortality rates in Asia and Africa, saving millions of lives. Tu’s research began when she was recruited to a medical research project so secret it was known only as “523:” the unit had been created two years earlier on the orders of Chairman Mao, who hoped to find a way of halting the spread of a disease decimating North Vietnamese troops in the Vietnam War. Tu found the key to the disease by scouring books about traditional Chinese medicine, finally finding mention of sweet wormwood being used to treat malaria in a hundreds-of-years-old text of the East Jin dynasty. Tu and her team were able to identify an active compound that attacked malaria-causing parasites in the blood, which would later become known as artemisinin, and Tu took it upon herself to test it personally.

Daraprim “Profiteering” Controversy Lifts Lid on Soaring Cost of Prescription Drugs The Guardian September 27, 2015

Until recently, most people had never heard of Daraprim, a drug that fights toxoplasmosis. But after the decision of the drug’s new owner, Turing Pharmaceuticals, to boost its cost per pill from $13.50 to a whopping $750, it’s been difficult to forget it or Turing’s owner, 32-year-old Martin Shkreli. He’s since been undercut by a rival drug company, but the outrage over the initial hike in the life-saving drug’s price has led to furious debates about the soaring costs of prescription medications. Logic suggests that drugs that have been around for a while should decline in price, in part because they are cheap and easy to make; in part because they face competition from generic manufacturers. It turns out that isn’t the case. Part of the problem is that there are individuals like Shkreli scouring the market for drugs like Daraprim that don’t have effective generic rivals (perhaps that market is too small for a generic drug maker to view it as profitable; perhaps, as in Daraprim’s case, there are unique issues surrounding the requirements for regulatory testing). The profit-minded company snaps up the patents, suddenly hikes the drug’s price and puts consumers – from insurance companies to individuals – in a position of either paying what is demanded or going without. Resolving this problem involves addressing not one, but two sets of for-profit interests: the pharmaceutical companies who research and develop the increasingly sophisticated products to treat diseases that once had few effective medications, and the insurance companies that must find a way to collect premiums and still make money for their shareholders.