Fully Viable Stem Cells from Adults

Posted on September 26, 2008 by Mark Urbin

No embryo required.  So say the researchers at Harvard Medical School. They are claiming to have developed a method that will produced stem cells from adults that are “potent” as embryonic stem cells.

This method has a benifit over embryonic stem cells.  These adult stem cells could be grown from a patients own tissue.  This would allow them to be transplanted without triggering immune rejection.

This method also avoids the ethical issues many have with harvesting embryonic stem cells.

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Green Crude

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Sapphire Energy, a San Diego based startup, has a process they claim can produce 91octane gasoline from “algae microorganisms, salt water, carbon dioxide and the power of the sun.”

The interesting twist to their technology is that method doesn’t use a plant that people typically use for food (like corn, sugarcane or sugar beats).  So not only doesn’t this solution use food products, it doesn’t require actual farm land (i.e. land used to grow food) to produce the fuel. 

Sapphire claims that they can set up a production facility in the desert.  The steady sunlight is an important factor in their production, and the salt water can be shipped in.

Their stated goal is to product 10,000 barrels a day, which in the national economy isn’t that much.  It is however, 10,000 barrels a day that isn’t pumped out of the ground, and will be produced domestically.

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