Hydrogen is the cleanest and most abundant fuel there is, but extracting it from water or organic material is currently not a very efficient process. Scientists are therefore studying certain bacteria that exhale hydrogen as part of their normal metabolism.

“The production of hydrogen by microorganisms is intimately linked to their cellular processes, which must be understood to optimize bioenergy yields,” said Amy VanFossen of North Carolina State University.

Of particular interest are microbes that thrive in hot temperatures, near the boiling point of water. VanFossen and her colleagues carried out a detailed DNA study of one of these thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria called Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus, which was first found in a hot spring in New Zealand.

The results, presented last week at the American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia, indicate which genes allow C. saccharolyticus to eat plant material, referred to as biomass, and expel hydrogen in the process.

Fuel cell vehicles are starting to be available for lease in California and the New York area. They run off of hydrogen gas and emit only water vapor out the tail pipe.

Hydrogen can be found everywhere: it’s the “H” in H2O and a major element in biological processes. The problem is that it takes quite a bit of energy to separate the hydrogen from the molecules it is found in.

However, certain organisms, such as the bacteria in cow stomachs , get energy from food through a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen gas. Often this hydrogen is immediately taken up by other bacteria, called methanogens , that convert it to methane .

One of the challenges, therefore, of producing hydrogen from bacteria is to prevent the methanogens from gobbling up the gas. The advantage of thermophiles is that they operate at temperatures that are typically too hot for methanogens. C. saccharolyticus, for example, prefers a toasty 160 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius).

Furthermore, the chemistry of hydrogen formation is easier at these higher temperatures, said Servé Kengen from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

“In general, thermophiles have a simpler fermentation pattern compared to [lower temperature] mesophiles, resulting in fewer byproducts,” he said.

Bionic microbe
Kengen is part of a European Union project called Hyvolution, which is developing decentralized hydrogen production that can be performed near where biomass is grown.

“Biological hydrogen production is well suited for decentralized energy production,” Kengen said. “The process is performed at almost ambient temperature and pressure, and therefore it is expected to be less energy intensive than thermochemical or electrochemical production methods [which are alternative ways to get hydrogen].”

Kengen said that C. saccharolyticus, or what he calls “Caldi,” is very attractive for this application. It is unique in that it eats a wide range of plant materials, including cellulose , and can digest different sugars (technically carbohydrates) at the same time.

I thought about this so long ago, I mean take it firther and power a city. All this wasted energy! Why not pay people to go to gyms and produce energy that would help the gym motivation blues.

The opening of Portland’s The Green Microgym this week seems like a perfect complement to the announcement of M2E’s kinetic charger, which can generate energy from motion. Adam Boesel, The Green Microgym’s owner, doctored up spin bikes with weed whacker motors and truck alternators so that patrons can create energy to help power the 2,800 foot space.

According to DailyTech, the Team Dynamo and Spin Bikes at the gym can each generate up to 75 watts. Next on Boesel’s list is generating power from elliptical trainers.

At first, patrons will probably generate about 25 percent of the gym’s power. But Boesel hopes that eventually they will be to generate all of it.

The Green Microgym follows in the footsteps of Hong Kong’s California Fitness gym, which uses gym-goers’ energy to power light fixtures.

For many of us, sleep is a precious gift, akin to coffee, that was gifted to us early on in our evolution. But scientists have long been completely baffled as to just why we sleep, and just what constitutes sleep anyway. A new study attempts to address just why we sleep.

“We don’t understand the purpose of sleep, but it must be important because all animals do it,” Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi, the study authors say, who describes the search for sleep as like the search for the mythological phoenix.

Some scientists believe that sleep is not important by itself in mammals and birds, and is just a way to impose a quiet and immobile state. Cirelli and Tononi reject this opinion, pointing to the fact that, so far, there has been no evidence of any animal not sleeping.

Even the dolphin, which is often used as an example of an animal that does not sleep because it keeps moving, has developed its own method of sleeping. The dolphin shuts down one half of its brain, swimming with one eye closed, and exhibiting the slow waves characteristic of deep sleep.

“The very fact that dolphins have developed the remarkable specialization . . ., rather than merely getting rid of sleep altogether, should count as evidence that sleep must serve some essential function and cannot be eliminated,” Cirelli says.

Cirelli also points to sleep deprivation, and the after-effect of having gone a long time without sleep, as examples of the necessity of it. Sleep deprivation has been shown to kill animals like rats, flies and cockroaches, as well as humans who suffer from genetic insomnia. And when a human rebounds from lack of sleep, they sleep for a long time to recuperate.

Their hypothesis suggests that sleep acts as a way for the brain to regroup after a hard day. Sleep theoretically gives the synapses – which have been escalating in strength during the day – a chance to slow down again, and return to a base level. Given that the brain uses 80% of its energy in order to keep the synaptic activity happening, there is an obvious need for the brain to rest.

They also suggest that sleep allows for the consolidation of new memories, and the trashing of older, random and unimportant memories from the day passed. This theoretically allows for more learning the following day. “While there may still be no consensus on why animals need to sleep, it would seem that searching for a core function of sleep, particularly at the cellular level, is still a worthwhile exercise,” Cirelli concludes.