White ants

Insecting_Ozmotic_03Termites as a source of power .
One of the US Department of Energy’s most enduring goals is to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of cleaner energy, such as hydrogen produced from plant biomass fermentation. Termites may help reach this goal through metagenomics.

Termites are capable of producing up to two liters of hydrogen from fermenting a single sheet of paper, making them one of the planet’s most efficient bioreactors. Termites achieve this high degree of efficiency by exploiting the metabolic capabilities of about 200 different species of microbes that inhabit their hindguts.

Hydrogen is normally created by using electricity to remove hydrogen molecules from water or natural gas, but the electricity is most often generated using fossil fuels that emit carbon pollutants. The microbial community in the termite gut efficiently manufactures large quantities of clean hydrogen. By sequencing thetermite’s microbial community, it may be possible to get a better understanding of these biochemical pathways.

Arnold Ghelen

U235_Ozmotic_Ghelem_01

“In the absence of specialized organs and instincts, man is not naturally adapted to a specific environment, unique of its kind, and consequently has no other recourse than to transform its intelligence with any preconceived natural condition. Poor sensory apparatus, without arms, naked, embryonic in all its habitus, insecure in his instincts, he is the being whose existence necessarily depends on the action”.

Arnold Ghelen – “Man in the age of technology” – 1957

Honey bee_01

Insecting_Ozmotic_01“The honey bee (Apis millifera) has been called a model system for social behavior and will be useful in elucidating the mechanisms by which social factors regulate gene expression in brains, including those of humans”

Saurabh Sinha – Professor of computer science of the University’s Institute for Genomic Biology – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Honey Bee Genome Holds Clues To Social Behavior.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 October 2006.