Life-Saving Potential of Bio-Engineering

Recently, scientists at the Imperial College in London found a way to engineer mosquitoes, bred in a lab setting, to no longer be capable of transmitting disease.  Malaria, a disease commonly spread through mosquito bites, killed an estimated 800,000 people in 2009.  The scientists found a way to alter the mosquito’s DNA to disable a trait that enables a mosquito to transmit such diseases.

The new challenge on the horizon for these scientists is finding a way to deliver this transformative gene to the species of mosquito that transmits malaria.  Scientists are still studying methods for such, but the current progress made is a monumental milestone in the prevention of malaria. 

Interested in teaching your students about bio-engineering?  Check out http://www.ssrvideo.com/vol40.html#7. 

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/disease-proof-mosquito-could-spr.html?etoc

Florida Biofuel Center

Florida will soon be welcoming a biofuel production plant where there was once a citrus processing plant.  The plant will be one of the first commercial-scale biofuel plants in the United States.  At peak operation, the plant is predicted to produce 8 million gallons of bio-ethanol annually. 

The plant will create biofuel from bacteria that produces such from cellulosic crops, feedstock, forestry waste, agricultural waste, household yard and vegetable waste, and certain municipal wastes.  In addition, the plant will feed 2 megawatts into the Florida electric grid.  

Interested in teaching your students more about biofuels?  Check out SCIENCE SCREEN REPORT's Volume 40 episode titled: FUEL TECHNOLOGY - Waste Not, Want Not

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20031329-54.html