Scientists using algae to generate energy

October 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has found evidence in the form of algae and pollen grains of a sudden, remarkably warm period in Antarctica that occurred about 15.7 million years ago and lasted for a few thousand years. The evidence was found by Sophie Warny, LSU (Louisiana State University) assistant professor of geology and geophysics and curator at the LSU Museum of Natural Science, and colleagues.

September 25th, 2009 Toxic algae complaints piling up in FrancePARIS — The prosecutor's office is studying up to 300 complaints linked to noxious green algae after the death of a horse this summer on a beach in Brittany, a judicial official said Friday. Suspicions that tons of decaying green algae may be behind illnesses, comas or deaths reported over more than a decade gained credence with the death on July 28 of the thoroughbred on a beach in Saint-Michel-en-Greve.

September 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of researchers at the Angstrom Laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden have discovered that the distinctive cellulose nanostructure of the green Cladophora algae can serve as an effective coating substrate for use in environmentally friendly batteries. "These algae has a special cellulose structure characterised by a very large surface area," said Gustav Nystrom, a doctoral student in nanotechnology and the first author of the research article.

August 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study suggests that after making beer, the waste from breweries can be used to generate power. It would now mean a huge relief and an added advantage for brewers who face difficulty in getting rid of thousands of tons of grain left over at the end of the brewing process.

August 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using energy production from microalgae, a team of scientists is developing closed photo-bioreactors and novel cell disruption methods. Microalgae are monocellular, plant-like organisms engaged in photosynthesis and converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into biomass.

July 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that the single-celled algae that set up house inside hard corals and give reefs their vibrant colors may be able to see. According to a report in National Geographic News, the algae, called zooxanthellae, have mysterious crystal-like deposits, which were found to be made of uric acid, a common element in light-reflecting structures in insect and animal eyes.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified as algae. The blob is thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has suggested that Coralline algae in the Mediterranean Sea lost their tropical element between 5 and 7 million years ago. The international team of researchers studied the coralline algae fossils that lived on the last coral reefs of the Mediterranean Sea between 7.24 and 5.3 million years ago.

July 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have suggested that toxic algal blooms are created when aggressive algae kill and injure their competitors in order to absorb the nutrients they contain. "The behaviour of the algae can be compared to that of blood-sucking insects," said Per Jonsson of the Department of Marine Ecology.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Stanford University scientists have found evidence that some coral reefs are adapting to the climate change and may actually survive global warming. "Corals are certainly threatened by environmental change, but this research has really sparked the notion that corals may be tougher than we thought," said Stephen Palumbi, a professor of biology and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.

April 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have decoded genomes of two algal strains, highlighting the genes enabling them to capture carbon and maintain its delicate balance in the oceans. The team of scientists was from two-dozen research organizations led by the U.S.

March 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers studying a hydrogen-producing, single-celled green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, have unmasked a previously unknown fermentation pathway that may open up possibilities for increasing hydrogen production. C. reinhartii, a common inhabitant of soils, naturally produces small quantities of hydrogen when deprived of oxygen.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have found an alga in Yellowstone National Park, US, that can detoxify arsenic. "The alga - a simple one-celled algae called Cyanidioschyzon - thrives in extremely toxic conditions and chemically modifies arsenic that occurs naturally around hot springs," said Tim McDermott, professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University.

March 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers have stumbled on an algae that detoxifies arsenic, potentially opening the way for cleaning up underground water reservoirs in West Bengal and Bangladesh contaminated with the poison. The simple, single-celled algae called Cyanidioschyzon thrives in extremely toxic conditions and chemically modifies arsenic that occurs naturally, said Tim McDermott, professor of environmental sciences at Montana State University (MSU) who led the study.

January 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists see marine algae as the most promising bet for a green fuel that would help ease the dependence on fossil fuel and power vehicles of the future. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Californa San Diego (UCSD), scientists along with their counterparts from its division of biological sciences are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH, public and private partners.