Lignin is the least abundant of the three main wood components. In the past two decades, much research has been done on lignin processing. It hasn’t resulted in major industrial processes yet. Shouldn’t we shift our focus? This is the … Read more
Lignin valorization has become a top technological challenge. Lignin is one of the three main components of wood, the ubiquitous and carbon capturing resource. The other two are cellulose and hemicellulose. Lignin, accounting for 15-30% of woody biomass, is the … Read more
Some projects develop slowly but steadily. One of them is the project towards bionylon. We wrote about this in 2014 already. Genomatica, based in San Diego (USA) was the driving force behind the project then, as it is now. After … Read more
In Dutch newspaper NRC of July 23, 2022, Joost Smiers tackles the problem of the sky-high prices of medication. Do we still need Big Pharma? he asks. And he answers: no. We can do away with pharmaceutical industry and turn … Read more
Applications of graphene, that wonderful material, multiply all the time. The latest news concerns its application in concrete. Adding graphene to concrete can render it extremely strong and much more versatile. This is important because we will need much less … Read more
How do we get rid of the growing amount of plastic waste in the world? On a macro scale, The Ocean Cleanup tries to accomplish that: by removing plastic from the oceans. But we will also have to try to … Read more
The Dutch farmers manifest themselves. They block highways and distribution centres. They pay a visit to the homes of ministers. They oppose plans to reduce appreciably manure production and ammonia emissions by agriculture. But they ignore that viable alternatives exist … Read more
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the death of Charles Darwin. And the 163rd anniversary of the publication of his book The Origin of Species. Darwin is the most influential biologist in history. But his legacy has seen its … Read more
An article in Chemical and Engineering News calls our attention to the struggle to control weeds. Will we be able to control weeds in the future? Will the EU, that wishes to halve the use of agricultural chemicals, come to … Read more
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam suffers from congestion on the grid. As do other locations. Sustainable energy projects are stalled because of it. New business projects suffer the same fate. The solution, according to grid companies? More capacity on the grid! … Read more
Fur is one of the most difficult textiles to imitate. It also meets with a lot of resistance because its production requires killing animals. But Bio Market Insights now reports that the Dutch company Geneus Biotech has grown mink fur … Read more
Until quite recently, lithium-ion batteries were supposed to be the pinnacle of battery technology. These devices would allow the electrification of transport, and indeed of much of the entire world. But they have now got competition from sodium-ion batteries. Not … Read more
Wood conservation is a necessary and noble art. In itself, wood is an excellent construction material: in ample supply, often locally sourced, easy to process; its production requires little energy. But softwood will quickly deteriorate. It may rot by action … Read more
A recent article in The Conversation shows the undesirable results of a climate policy that lends its ears to public opinion. For consumers are at odds with themselves – in fact, they are just waiting for governments to take the … Read more
MIT in Boston (UsA) is one of the scientific centres developing initiatives to stop climate change. On April 11, it announced five flagship projects in its Climate Grand Challenges. Among these, a project Revolutionizing agriculture with low-emissions, resilient crops. Intended … Read more
Until quite recently, professionals in healthcare tended to look upon body and mind as strictly separated therapeutic entities. And we still don’t treat them a being equal. The notion that all phenomena are interconnected permeates to an increasing number of … Read more
Thermal batteries are yet another way to store an excess of solar and wind power. According to the laws of physics, they would seem to incur major energy losses. But on the other hand, they might be very cheap and … Read more
We already went into promises of biotechnology and of biological preparations (a.o. in no.54, If chemistry and biology join forces). Biology makes less progress than hoped for, and its successes remain restricted to a limited number of therapeutic applications. Its … Read more
The contours of the future energy system haven’t yet been drawn with great precision. Solar and wind energies lie at its foundation. But these come with their problems: at times they produce too much, at times too little energy. We … Read more
What does the future of pharma look like? So far, our task was easy, a description of history. Now things become much more difficult. There is a multitude of subjects on the agenda. Like the health gains that we jeopardized … Read more
There are many reasons for use of more solar energy. Most importantly, the climate. Moreover, the world needs to scale down its use of gas and oil quickly. More solar power? We can do that. Even in a densely populated … Read more
An urgent (but often forgotten) issue in our society is that of the limits to healthcare. Its costs have been on the rise for quite some time now – just a bit, each year, but nevertheless. It will have to … Read more
Each year, planet Earth loses 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forest. Since 1960, more than half of all tropical forests have disappeared. Particularly because of logging in the tropical rain forests of Brazil and Indonesia. Logging also takes … Read more
The most important factor continuously propelling and changing society is technological development. Karl Marx would have been delighted to see that present-day society is still characterized by the relationship between base and superstructure as he proposed it, almost a century … Read more
Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas. It has 82.5 times more warming potential than CO2 over a 20-year timespan. But fortunately, it lives shortly in the atmosphere: it degrades in 12 years. Therefore, methane mitigation is a key opportunity … Read more
The ‘70s of the past century mark a turning point in the control of toxic microorganisms. Researchers then discover that we will never finally be able to control them. That we will always find resistance on our path; and that … Read more
In 64 episodes, we painted a picture of mankind gradually getting the upper hand over infectious diseases with the aid of its chemical knowledge. And of the limits to this process, as we now run into the ‘new’ but very … Read more
Seaweed has many applications. It is processed to food additives and mock meat products. It is used in additives in the food of chickens, pigs, cows, pets and horses. As a seaweed-biostimulant it can reinforce the qualities of soils and … Read more
Fungi are the producers of our most important antibiotics. But they can also be a burden, even a threat at times. Here we will not go into relatively innocent and easily curable conditions, mostly at or near the outside of … Read more
In our conflict with bacteria, we make much more use of tablets and powders than of vaccines. TBC treatment is an exception, all the more so because the tuberculosis bacterium is hard to control with antibiotics. In the case of … Read more
From times immemorial, mankind has swallowed or applied herbs as medicines. Herbal medicine has now moved into the background, maybe even become obsolete. But problems like resistance revive this branch of medicine. For instance, careful research into traditional Chinese medicine … Read more
A shift towards a plant-based diet could buy humanity a much needed pause in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. The plant-based diet and global warming The effects of a phase-out of a meat-based diet would have a major effect … Read more
Like garlic, cinnamon has a long history. It is figures in the history of trade and monopolies of spices. In the case of cinnamon, its use as a food additive and taste enhancer is more pronounced than that as a … Read more
For a long time, biology held that mutation rates are random. Biologists assumed that mutations occur anywhere in the genome, in principle at the same rate everywhere. That some mutations are more successful than others is because harmful mutations are … Read more
From times immemorial, garlic has not just been looked upon as a food, but as a medicine as well. The well-known clove figures in each old medicinal text, as a cure for many conditions. How does this stand up under … Read more
In popular writings, recommendations for the use of vegetal medicines abound, as a cure for whatever condition. Often, regulation is absent. To keep truth and fiction apart is almost an impossible task. Germany is the country that generates the most … Read more
Many proponents of sustainability adhere to the idea that the main path to sustainability lies in high-tech solutions. Like electric cars instead of the old ones, that guzzle fossil fuels. We even wrote a book on this ‘green growth’. But … Read more
In the search for new antibiotics, the so-called ‘natural’ medicines come into the picture again. Ousted (temporarily?) by the rise of chemistry, that laid the foundation for an entirely new branch of medicine. Based on simple substances. Developed in the … Read more
PHAs (polyhydroxy alkanoates) are interesting but difficult plastics. Interesting because they are produced in a natural way. From sustainable or waste resources. By microorganisms and not at high temperatures. PHAs are biodegradable. They have widely varying properties. In many applications, … Read more
From being almost forgotten to being the most abundant kind of microorganisms: phages. Moreover, harmless to people. It is simple to contain a bacterial infection with phages, if one has access to a phage that takes on the bacterium in … Read more
There are no leaders in the world of microorganisms. All creatures have friends and enemies. Some of them are actual living organisms, others are at the intersection of living and non-living matter. Alternatively, they are only active in a reciprocal … Read more
Right now, there is a lot of interest in all microorganisms in and on our bodies. Researchers have good look at the intestinal flora in particular. Recently, we wrote two articles on this subject, with the significant titles Who are … Read more
Reforestation is an important instrument in the fight against climate change. Particularly in Europe, planting more trees would increase rainfall and reverse a drying trend. But do we know enough about woods, to be able to create healthy woodlands? New … Read more
One quarter of the recently developed new medicines are biomedicines. It still isn’t clear where this may lead us in terms of new antibiotics. But our insight into nature’s fundamental processes grows by leaps and bounds. Again and again, this … Read more
Almost three years ago, in 2019, we voiced our concern over increased methane emissions. Although then we saw a bright side to this problem: unlike CO2 emissions, methane (CH4) emissions can easily be tracked down and repaired. But three years … Read more
After some time during a 100 year war, it may become unclear why and how it all started. Even the possible outcome may disappear out of sight. In the battle between chemistry and bacteria, chemistry seems to be losing. A … Read more
The serious search for new antibiotics starts only in 2015. Private and public initiatives collect funds for new research. Oxford University for instance, equips a new institute for research and action on resistance. The results seem to be positive. Between … Read more
A number of powerful people has embarked on a mission to defy death. The most recent among these is Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon and one of the five richest people on earth. He was preceded by George Church, … Read more
In 2019, the American FDA approved just one antibiotic: lefamulin, a medicine against pneumonia. It is marketed under the name of Xenleta. The history of this medicine makes a telling story. It clearly shows the obstacles in the search for, … Read more
More European solar PV production capacity, a better alternative to the expensive, slow, risky and misguided path of nuclear energy. This article was first published on Renewable Carbon News of nova-Institute. The European nuclear lobby, already thought dead, is trying … Read more