New antibiotics – their development stagnates. Why?
Resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem; and yet, the development of new antibiotics stagnates. Why? Don’t we need new antibiotics, on second thoughts? Or does industry judge that new developments will not earn them enough money? New antibiotics from nature Recently, we ran an article on the avoidance of resistance by leaf-cutting ants in
Carbon storage in the soil
The Conversation, that invaluable source of balanced information, ran an article on carbon storage in the soil. Potentially, one of our main instruments for controlling the rise of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. But present developments point the other way: carbon emissions and soil depletion, at a pace that might even harm the world’s agricultural
CRISPR to the rescue as bacteria develop antibiotics resistance
Antibiotics resistance of harmful organisms becomes a major problem – in agriculture, in human and veterinary medicine. Scientists now try to come up with new methods. They think that CRISPR (discovered less than 10 years ago) might be a solution. Scientists don’t often highlight it, but resistance of harmful organisms to our drugs is becoming
Chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste
Quickly, the world gets critical of plastic waste. It litters land, waterways and oceans. Until quite recently, rich countries could export their waste to poorer countries – for them to sort out the difficult tail of consumer society. But since China banned such imports in 2018, each country needs to deal with its own waste.
Resolve-project develops bio-based alternatives for hazardous solvents
During a workshop at the latest European Forum on Industrial Biotechnology (EFIB) in Brussels, the BBI JU funded ReSolve-project introduced a number of newly developed, less hazardous, viable bio-based renewable solvents. These new solvent molecules proved to have better performance than their fossil counterparts. ReSolve also developed innovative methodology to assess the chemical, physical, safety
Energy from biomass is sustainable, as a nest egg
Once upon a time, energy from biomass like wood, manure, whale oil and other sources was the primary supplier of heat, light and food processing. If we should like to contain climate change effectively, would we have to return to those times? This article was first published (in Dutch) on the site of wattisduurzaam.nl. Energy
We will never be able to control nature perfectly
When researchers discovered the CRISPR-Cas mechanism, it was looked upon as the perfect instrument for genetic modification (GM). But it appears to have its flaws. Flaws that might be inherent to life and to nature as such. This is a shortened passage from the book ‘Naturally! Of course. How nature never stops surprising us’ (in
Education on strike
Dutch primary education has a huge problem, that also affects bio-economy developments. There’s a substantial shortage of teachers, the teaching profession is not appreciated much, and the pay gap with secondary education is decently described by the sector as ‘not appropriate’. Emergency measures like shorter school weeks or even closure of schools are not unthinkable
