Bio & Agri¶
Assignment: Choose a journalistic article relating to biology or agriculture and discuss it by referencing existing scientific articles.¶
After the seminar on Biology and Agricultre, we were well informed about some basics in biology, how organisms work, biomaterials… which allows to ask more critical questions about these topics.
For this assignment, I picked the article titled “Clean up” that was published in MIT Technology Review on Aug 24th , 2022 as it touches on some interesting topics that was relevant to the seminar we had. The article is a news piece about an exciting invention that a Phd student, Christoff-Tempesta, made: He took the idea of a cell membrane - which allows things to move in and out of cells selectively- and he was able to combine it with a very thin platform structure made of nanofibers that would hold it together so that’s is not unstable in its shape like a cell membrane.
Thinking of the impressive capabilities of cell-membranes, I found this to be a high-potential discovery that could unlock many use-cases. In Christoff-Tempesta’s own words, “Think about all that surface area being covered with some functionality that’s able to do what you want it to.”
There are a few possible use cases mentioned in the article:
-Filtering heavy metals like lead from drinking water: Apparently “a gram’s worth of his nanomaterial is able to treat up to 2,500 liters of water contaminated with lead at a level of 50 parts per billion.” While it’s not explained how water will be treated exactly, I assume this would be technically possible based on this paper. What I’m not clear about is how they’d be able to keep this material in place, so that it doesn’t get displaced by the water that is being processed; and how this material itself will be separated from the water after it’s completed the removal of the lead.
-Creating recyclable plastics: Using this material to create recyclable plastics made me wonder what is that other biodegradable plastic alternatives can’t do that this material could. To understand the world of biodegradable plastics, I relied on this article, and the chemical structures that make them different from non-degradable plastics.
Having gone through some research on plastic, I came to conclude that probably the large surface area with very minimal mass is what makes this material interesting as a plastic alternative. I imagine covering large surfaces with a material that you can program can be beneficial for many industries. Some examples that come to my mind are, swimming pool surfaces, roof-top surfaces or clothing that is made water-proof by adding a thin surface film made of this material. This could potentially be more environmental friendly than current solutions; due to the minimal amount of material you need, and the bio-degradable characteristic of it.
Overall, I found out that it’s an intriguing activity to think of potential outcomes of a new discovery such as this one, and doing a deeper study on it by delving into existing scientific research and articles on the topic.
Tahoon, M.A.; Siddeeg, S.M.; Salem Alsaiari, N.; Mnif, W.; Ben Rebah, F. Effective Heavy Metals Removal from Water Using Nanomaterials: A Review. /Processes/ 2020, /8/, 645. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8060645
Filiciotto L, Rothenberg G. Biodegradable Plastics: Standards, Policies, and Impacts. ChemSusChem. 2021 Jan 7;14(1):56-72. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202002044. Epub 2020 Oct 28. PMID: 33112051; PMCID: PMC7821290.
The code of life, sitting on a desk
Visiting the labs by the beach