WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he said are efforts by states to turn women's health back to the 1950s, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, and singled out the GOP-governed states of North Dakota and Mississippi for criticism.
"When politicians try to turn Planned Parenthood into a punching bag, they're not just talking about you," Obama said, becoming the first sitting president to address the abortion-rights group in person. "They're talking about the millions of women who you serve."
Obama asserted that "an assault on women's rights" is underway across the country, with bills introduced in more than 40 states to limit or ban abortion or restrict access to birth control or other services.
"The fact is, after decades of progress, there's still those who want to turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century," he said. "And they've been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women's health."
Last month, North Dakota Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed a law that bans abortions as early as six weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat is detected, making the state the most restrictive in the nation in which to get the procedure.
Obama said "a woman may not even know that she's pregnant at six weeks."
More than a year ago in Mississippi, a "personhood" ballot initiative that would have defined life as beginning at fertilization was defeated by 58 percent of voters in November 2011, the same election in which staunch abortion opponent Phil Bryant, a Republican, was elected governor. Bryant had campaigned for the initiative. Abortion opponents are expected to soon begin a signature-drive to get a similar initiative on the ballot in 2014 or 2015.
"Mississippi's a conservative state, but they wanted to make clear there's nothing conservative about the government injecting itself into decisions best made between a woman and her doctor," Obama said of the voters there.
The president lauded Planned Parenthood's nearly 100 years of providing cancer screenings, contraception and other health services for women and assured those fighting to protect abortion rights that they have an ally in him.
"You've also got a president who's going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way," Obama said.
In North Dakota, Republican state Rep. Bette Grande, an abortion opponent from Fargo who introduced the bill banning most abortions based on a fetal heartbeat, said she was happy Obama took notice of her state's stance on the issue.
"He is pointing it out because it's true. We have taken a serious look at the life of a child, and the nation is paying attention to that," she said. "We are dealing with life in North Dakota and something as basic as a beating heart."
Laurie Bertram Roberts, Mississippi president of the National Organization for Women, said voters in her state, while conservative, did not misunderstand what "personhood" would have meant for women and families.
"We understand that when you give a fertilized egg the rights of a person, that affects every aspect of pregnancy and reproductive health," she said.
Obama's pledge to stand with Planned Parenthood echoed his rhetoric in last year's presidential campaign after Republican rival Mitt Romney said he'd eliminate the organization's federal funding if elected. That incident, coupled with other issues, led Democrats to begin accusing Republicans of waging a "war on women." Obama went on to win a second term with 55 percent of the female vote, polls showed.
The president originally was scheduled to address Planned Parenthood on Thursday night, but the appearance was delayed to allow him to spend more time in Texas with the loved ones of those who were killed or injured in last week's explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.
In his short speech on Friday, Obama made no reference to a pair of abortion-related issues that made headlines in recent weeks.
On April 5, a federal judge in New York gave Obama's administration 30 days to begin allowing over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, saying the government's decision to limit such sales to those aged 17 and older was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."
Planned Parenthood sided with the judge; the administration has yet to say whether it will file an appeal.
In Pennsylvania, abortion provider Kermit Gosnell is standing trial on charges of killing babies after they were born alive at his West Philadelphia clinic. He also is charged in the 2009 overdose death of a 41-year-old patient. Closing arguments in the case were set for Monday.
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Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss., and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, rubble fills Sharia al-Sweiqa, inside the Old City of Aleppo, Syria. A year after the opposition fighters stormed Aleppo, taking control of several districts in the city of three million and capturing much of its surrounding towns and villages, the industrial zones that constituted 60 percent of Syrian pre-war economy, are mostly deserted. Some have been looted and several have been burnt down. (AP Photo/Monica Prieto, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, rubble fills Sharia al-Sweiqa, inside the Old City of Aleppo, Syria. A year after the opposition fighters stormed Aleppo, taking control of several districts in the city of three million and capturing much of its surrounding towns and villages, the industrial zones that constituted 60 percent of Syrian pre-war economy, are mostly deserted. Some have been looted and several have been burnt down. (AP Photo/Monica Prieto, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, merchants remove their wares from the souk in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria. A year after the opposition fighters stormed Aleppo, taking control of several districts in the city of three million and capturing much of its surrounding towns and villages, the industrial zones that constituted 60 percent of Syrian pre-war economy, are mostly deserted. Some have been looted and several have been burnt down. (AP Photo/Monica Prieto, File)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Two Syrian officials denied Friday that government forces had used chemical weapons against rebels, Damascus' first response to U.S. assertions that it had.
On Thursday, the White House and other top Obama administration officials said that U.S. intelligence had concluded with "varying degrees of confidence" that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in its civil war.
In the Syrian capital however, a government official said President Bashar Assad's military "did not and will not use chemical weapons even if it had them." He instead accused opposition forces of using them in a March attack on the village of Khan al-Assad outside of the northern city of Aleppo.
Both sides have accused each other of the deadly attack.
The official said the Syrian army had no need for using chemical weapons "because it is capable of reaching any area in Syria it wants" without them. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.
Sharif Shehadeh, a Syrian lawmaker, said the Syrian army "can win the war with traditional weapons" and has no need for chemical weapons.
Syria's official policy is not to confirm nor deny it has chemical weapons.
Shehadeh called the U.S. claims "lies" and likened them to false accusations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction ? a claim U.S. policymakers had used to justify the invasion of that country in 2003.
"What is being designed for Syria now is similar to what happened in Iraq when Colin Powell lied in the Security Council and said Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction prior to the U.S. invasion and occupation of that country," he said.
President Barack Obama has said that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that could result in a significant military response. But the administration said on Thursday that the new revelation won't immediately change its stance on intervention.
On the streets of Damascus, the two-year old conflict dragged on Friday, with government troops pushing into two northern neighborhoods, triggering heavy fighting with rebels as they tried to advance under air and artillery support, activists said.
The drive was the latest in a dayslong offensive by government forces in and around the capital, an apparent bid to secure Assad's main stronghold against rebel challenges.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting between rebels and soldiers backed by pro-government militiamen was concentrated in the Jobar and Barzeh areas. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said troops also bombarded the nearby neighborhood of Qaboun with mortars and multiple rocket launchers.
State-run news agency SANA said troops killed five rebels in clashes near the main mosque in Jobar. It added that many other "terrorists," the term the government uses for rebels, were killed in the area and the nearby neighborhood of Zamalka.
The regime has largely kept the rebels at bay in Damascus, although opposition fighters control several suburbs of the capital from which they have threatened the heart of the city. Last month, government troops launched a campaign to repel the opposition's advances near the capital, deploying elite army units to the rebellious suburbs and pounding rebel positions with airstrikes.
The Observatory also reported clashes in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, between rebels and Kurdish gunmen in the contested Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood. It also said there was fighting around the sprawling Abu Zuhour air base in the northwestern Idlib province.
Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but later degenerated into a civil war, which has left an estimated 70,000 dead.
The Thirty Meter Telescope has been under development for more than a decade, but the sheer amount of land needed on Hawaii's Mauna Kea for its namesake main mirror has proved problematic: locals have formally challenged the multi-university effort over concerns that it might damage both the environment and natives' heritage. Regardless of which stance you take on the issue, the project is going forward now that the state's Board of Land and Natural Resources has granted an official land permit. The move clears an optical and near-infrared telescope with nine times the coverage area of its peers, and three times the sharpness. That's enough to observe light from 13 billion years ago as well as put a heavy focus on tracking extrasolar planets, including planets in the making. Any impact on science or Mauna Kea will have to wait when construction doesn't even start until April 2014, although we're hoping that environmental care requirements attached to the permit will let us appreciate both the early universe and modern-day Earth in equal measure.
'It just really makes me want to keep doing great work and not let anyone down,' 'Perks' actress says of her MTV Movie Award. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Darkness. Pitch black and nothingness. All one would see on the TV set, no men, no women, no cameras. Just darkness. Unsettling darkness with a just as unsettling quiet. Until a voice cut through it like a well-crafted blade.
"Welcome to World News with G. Gordon Godfrey." The voice prompted several spotlights to come on, revealing a large desk. A TV monitor shot on, images of several cities shown. Gotham, Tokyo, New York, Metropolis, London. Finally, the source of the voice stepped into view.
He was an average sized man, a redhead possibly in his mid-30s or early 40s. The carrot topped man wore a nice black suit with a nice red tie, an air of confidence surrounding him. There was a reason why he had highest rated news show on Fox, in America, possibly the entire world at this point. He knew how to speak to people, he knew what they wanted to hear, he knew how to say exactly what they didn't want to hear, but keep them listening.
"I apologize for my rather bleak, rather dark opening to tonight's show. But, it's fitting. Darkness and suddenly light, but this darkness came just as suddenly as my light." Godfrey said as he paced the stage. "Tomorrow Superman will be speaking to the world. He'll be speaking not as Superman, but as the boy who fell from Krypton."
"Yes, Krypton. Space. A planet far from Earth, a planet where they breed supermen, no pun intended. Superman is not like us. He isn't Human. He hasn't had to deal with what we've had to deal with!" Godfrey exclaimed, "When he is faced with a gun he is not at risk. But, when you and I meet the barrel of a gun our lives are possibly coming to an end. We cry, we think of those we love that'll we never see again, that will never see us again so full of life." Godfrey paused, the silence once again filling in the empty spaces for him.
It was nothing but truth. People witnessed it. It was all over the news, all over the internet. Superman could take bullet after bullet and all he had to show for it was a little dirt on his alien skin. Superman was stronger than Humans, he molded him as a champion of Humans.
Godfrey could almost hear the people across the country asking themselves one very important question.
"When will Superman turn and treat us like bugs beneath his red boots?" Godfrey asked the viewers at home, "I for one don't want to-..."
"I was watching that!" Augustus said as he tried to look around Raquel to see his TV, the young woman was working with the fact that Augustus couldn't see through her. "Yeah, you were watching that of all things." Raquel noted, "G. Gordon Godfrey is opposed to people like you. He doesn't want you here." Raquel said.
Augustus was a large African-American man, standing at about six feet and five inches. He was muscular, appearing to be a man who kept himself in shape. Raquel was possibly his opposite, a short, slim African-American woman.
"It's just television." Augustus told Raquel as he stood up from his seat, "Yeah, well, TV rots your brain. Even complex alien brains." Raquel retorted, making her way through the large Gotham City apartment towards the bathroom. "Don't turn it back on." Raquel ordered Augustus as she stepped into the bathroom.
"Bruce invited us to a party, I want to get there on time." Raquel said firmly, shutting the bathroom door. "I'll be ready." Augustus would be ready after he finished watching his program. He waited until he could hear the shower running, reaching out to turn his TV back on.
"...and on top of that they can look like us! They can talk like us! What other aliens are among us?" Godfrey asked as the program continued on the TV screen, "They destroy. The aliens destroy. Does anyone remember the alien Lobo?" Godfrey asked, looking around the set as he awaited an answer.
"Does anyone remember the carnage he left in his wake? What about Mongul and his Warworld? Do we suddenly forget these things before Superman and the Justice League postponed the carnage?"
"I don't see Mongul in chains, I don't see his grave. He'll come back, they always come back. Batman allows The Joker to return. Superman allowed Zod to return. Does anyone remember how close we were to kneeling before him?" Godfrey asked, "There are ways we begin to combat the alien menace."
"The aliens can register, become documented. They can go home. They can be sent home. They are not wanted if they won't play by the rules. But, I admit, I don't want them at all. Call me a bigot, call me hateful."
"Don't call me if Sinestro brings another army here." Godfrey said, spotlights on his sound stage shutting off one by one until there was nothing but darkness.
The bathroom door began to open, Augustus quickly jumped from his seat to change the channel. "I'm going to call a taxi. Take your time though." He told Raquel, "I'm going to grab my nice suit." Augustus said, making his way towards his room as a talk show aired.
Three woman sat on a couch on a large white set. The first was an Asian woman, she donned a purple suit jacket and white skirt. The second woman was a Caucasian woman, a stern, very professional looking woman dressed in a black pantsuit. The last woman was a Caucasian woman, she wore a white skirt and white jacket. She was serious, lacking any specific emotions.
"Welcome back to The Panorama! I'm Linda Park here with Lois Lane and Louise Lincoln." Linda said, "I understand that you have more personal questions Ms. Lincoln, Lois?" Linda asked, "Yes, your good friend Crystal Frost, later known as Killer Frost, passed away recently." Lois said to Louise, "Yes, I know. Why bring this up?" Louise asked, "I've heard from some unnamed sources that you're continuing her work." Lois told Louise.
"The same work that made her who she was. A criminal and a murderer with a power of ice. A female Mr. Freeze. Do you care to comment on these allegations?" Lois asked, "Crystal was a very good friend of mine, I owe it to her to continue with her experiments and take the necessary precautions to prevent the same thing that happened to her from happening with others." Louise answered.
"Do you blame Firestorm for her death?" Lois asked, "Do you hate him? Were you and Crystal something more than friends?" She continued, "Um... Lois?" Linda said, "That's none of your business!" Louise said, "I didn't hear a resounding 'no' to any of those questions." Lois said to Louise, "Did you bring me on this show for this?" Louise asked.
The woman stood from her seat, storming away from the set. "Um... we'll be back with Bruce Wayne's rival for billionaire playboy of the year, Oliver Queen, after this commercial break." Linda said to the cameras.
"Clear!" The director shouted, "What the hell was that?" Linda asked Lois, "Journalism, Linda. You should try it." Lois answered, getting up to make her way backstage. "You're not a journalist anymore." Linda told Lois as she followed, "You can't do stuff like that to people." Linda explained.
"If we did more like that to people then maybe G. Gordon Godfrey wouldn't be beating us in the ratings with his... bullshit." Lois said, "I'm not going lowbrow to get ratings." Linda protested, "Not lowbrow. Interesting. I for one don't want to talk to Green Arr-..." Lois stopped herself as several members of the film crew made their way backstage.
"Oliver Queen," She corrected herself "...about his new fragrance or what bimbo supermodel he's dating now. You might be fine with that, but that's tabloid shit and I want to be remembered for bringing people real news." Lois said, turning to walk away from Linda.
Need some people. Basic idea: Mentally unstable people who are seeking help undergo 'treatment' within a secluded mansion. They will encounter spirits, other troubled minds and come to terms with something much darker within the mansion walls. If it sounds intersting come check us out. :]
Beth Shiroishi, vice president of sustainability and philanthropy at AT&T Inc., rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday after the company was ranked No. 1 on CR Magazine?s ?100 Best Corporate Citizens? list [PDF]. The bell capped off the third annual Corporate Responsibility Forum, co-hosted by the Corporate Responsibility Officer?s Association, NYSE Euronext, and CR Magazine publisher SharedXpertise.
The daylong forum, ?Our Corporations in Our Communities,? brought together representatives from companies on the list, now in its 14th year, as well as leaders in the field of corporate responsibility.
CR uses publicly available information to rank companies based on seven categories: environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance, and philanthropy.
Business success is an important factor. ?If you don?t have profits, you?re not going to be around next year to be corporately responsible,? CR Magazine editor-in-chief Dirk Olin said ahead of announcing the 2013 honorees. But the list?s ranking committee assigns the most weight, 19.5 percent, to environmental impact and employee relations.
?To be on this list, by definition you have had an extraordinary year of capitalist evolution,? said Olin.
Dallas-based communications giant AT&T ranked 33rd on last year?s CR list [PDF], when Bristol-Myers Squibb took top honors. BMS fell to number three on the most recent list, but seven of the top 10 rose in this year?s ranking, including Merck & Co. Inc., which jumped to number eight after finishing 46th in 2012.
AT&T?s Shiroishi attributes the company?s ranking to its strong financial performance and the company?s improved transparency. ?Last year we really revamped our external communications and website to make information?some of which was already public?easier to find,? says Shiroishi.
A big part of her job is determining what external stakeholders value most. One set of stakeholders may stress what the company is doing to improve website access for people with disabilities, she says, while another is more concerned with consumer protections and data privacy. ?Every group is so different, and that?s actually one of the challenges.?
As a company, the more you know about the business, the better you can run it. But Shiroishi says that deciding how to present the information to the external world isn?t always easy. ?What you talk about and how you put that information out externally is obviously a balance, because what you want to do is be transparent, but also provide the right context.?
Sometimes data, without the appropriate context, can lead stakeholders to the wrong conclusions. One of the strengths of this particular survey, in Shiroishi?s view, is that it takes into account a range of sustainability measures, instead of just one.
?Not just environment, or just human rights, or just labor,? she says, ?but really looking across the spectrum to get a true, broad understanding of what it means to be a corporate citizen.?
Newark, NJ?s mayor, Cory Booker, delivered the keynote address, encouraging corporate leaders to recognize their role in building communities. He spoke of Newark?s reliance on the corporate community in mounting its recovery from a 60-year period of population and business exodus.
Although many credit Booker alone for the turnaround, he said it never would have been possible had people with different viewpoints not come together. ?The first principle of collective problem solving,? said Booker, ?is to bury your ego and find common ground.?
When Booker took office six years ago, he looked to local corporations like Prudential Financial Inc. for help?not in the form of donations, but expertise. Businesses loaned him human resources and investment experts to help clean up the city. ?The businesses knew more about investing than I did,? he pointed out.
?This kind of public-private partnership is incredible,? said Booker, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate. And in his view, if communities are going to flourish, they?ll need more of these kinds of arrangements. ?Theses are not a luxury, but a necessity,? he said. ?Many communities in America are struggling,? noted Booker, ?and they?re struggling needlessly.?
In Oamaru for an Angel Association New Zealand networking event are (from left) AANZ executive director Suse Reynolds, Otago Angels Ltd network manager Murray Downes, AANZ member Nicolas Erdody, of Oamaru, Seed Co-Investment Fund investment director Chris Twiss and (seated) AANZ chairman Dr Ray Thomson. Photo by Sally Rae.
From stock agent to lawyer, corporate financier to venture capitalist, and then business owner - it has been quite a journey for former North Otago man Chris Twiss.
Mr Twiss, who is an investment director for the Seed Co-investment Fund of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, returned to his home territory this week for an Angel Association New Zealand networking event in Oamaru.
The aim was to share ideas about the angel investment model for New Zealand's economy and to raise the profile of angel investment.
Brought up at Duntroon, in the Waitaki Valley, Mr Twiss was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School and spent three years working as a stock agent for Wrightsons, mainly in South Otago.
After later graduating with law and marketing degrees from the University of Otago, he joined law firm Bell Gully.
That was followed by a stint in London, working firstly as a commercial lawyer and then as a corporate financier and venture capitalist with UK merchant bank Close Brothers PLC.
On his return to New Zealand, he was appointed to the newly created role of executive director of the New Zealand Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and spent five years in that role.
The New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF) was established in 2002 as a government-owned company responsible for accelerating the development of the private equity and venture capital market, to stimulate investment into young technology companies.
It has $200 million of funds under management - the $160 million Venture Capital Fund of Funds and the $40 million Seed Co-investment Fund.
The Seed Co-investment Fund is an equity investment fund aimed at small to medium-sized businesses at the seed and start-up stage of development which has strong potential for high growth.
Of the $40 million, $22 million was invested, with 14 partners throughout New Zealand involved and 92 companies funded, Mr Twiss said.
In 2006, he launched his own company, Whippersnapper, an online children's merino clothing business.
The business was ''fairly modest'', with less than $100,000 turnover, and he joked that he was the angel investor in that venture.
When it came to angel investment, Mr Twiss said there was a ''big drive'' to get people involved. They wanted to let more people know about what was going on and reinforce how important it was to support such innovative entrepreneurship. While they knew there were people supporting companies throughout New Zealand, it was about mobilising that capital capability in a much more structured way, he said.
It would be a ''great shame'' if people simply did not know such an industry existed.
The model was coming together in groups and had a real social element but it was also a much more efficient and genuine way of reducing investment risk.
There was satisfaction and stimulation from helping someone and the prospect of getting a good return on money, while also recognising the risk.
''This is highly relevant to jobs your children will do and your grandchildren,'' he said.
Dr Ray Thomson, who is chairman of the AANZ, and a professional director based in Auckland, said there were about 360 members and they hoped to raise that by a couple of hundred ''over the next year or so''.
It was all about helping early stage investors ''get going'', Dr Thomson said.
''If we don't get behind entrepreneurship and innovation happening in New Zealand, this country is just going to doddle along down the ranks of the OECD. It's one way of really trying to help New Zealand take a few steps up the ladder,'' he said.
Suse Reynolds, AANZ executive director, said the industry enabled an investor to ''actually make a difference''.
Angels put money and ''smarts'' into ventures and were involved in it, ''not just talking about it'', she said.
''You are actually tangibly involved in it which is really fun. Everybody in the space is enormously collaborative,'' she said.
Otago Angels Ltd network manager Murray Downes, whose job was to enable linkage between the investor and the entrepreneur, said the Otago group had about 70 members.
BEIJING/SEOUL ? China on Sunday warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to North Korea.
The North, led by 30-year-old Kim Jong-un, has been issuing vitriolic threats of war against the United States and U.S.-backed South Korea since the United Nations imposed sanctions in response to its third nuclear weapon test in February.
North Korean officials told diplomats late last week to consider leaving Pyongyang because of the tension, but embassies appeared to view the appeal as more rhetoric and staff have stayed put.
North Korea continues to voice aggressive warnings toward the U.S. and South Korea, leaving both countries concerned over what may come next from North Korea. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
China, North Korea's sole financial and diplomatic backer, has shown growing irritation with Pyongyang's warnings of nuclear war.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing a forum on the southern island of Hainan, did not name North Korea but said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".
Stability in Asia, he said, "faces new challenges, as hot spot issues keep emerging and both traditional and non-traditional security threats exist".
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed similar frustration in a statement late on Saturday, relating a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"We oppose provocative words and actions from any party in the region and do not allow trouble making on China's doorstep," Wang said, according to a ministry statement on its website.
On Sunday, the ministry expressed "grave concern" at rising tension and said China had asked North Korea to "ensure the safety of Chinese diplomats in North Korea, in accordance with the Vienna Convention and international laws and norms".
China's embassy, it said, was "understood" to be operating normally in Pyongyang.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, addressing the Hainan forum, said avoiding conflict on the peninsula was vital. "There, any aggression is a threat to the interests of every country in the region," she said.
British Foreign Minister William Hague said North Korea's nuclear ambitions had to be taken seriously.
Interviewed by Sky News, he said the international response "should also be very clear, very united and calm at all times because it's important not to feed that frenetic rhetoric that we've seen over the last few weeks".
Switzerland's Foreign Ministry offered to mediate, saying it was "always willing to help find a solution, if this is the wish of the parties, such as hosting meetings between them".
Kim, the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea, is thought to have spent several years in Switzerland being educated under a pseudonym. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, who confronted South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.
Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in Hainan and Phil Stewart in Washington
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To crack the code of the human brain, Cori Bargmann figures it's best to keep an open mind.
As one of two leaders of a scientific "dream team" in the initial phase of President Barack Obama's ambitious $100 million project to map the brain, Bargmann said the first step is to find the right combination of people to set research priorities.
"You might start with people who are very senior and are household words in their fields, and then you may realize that what (you) actually need is the young Turk who's a visionary wild man," Bargmann said.
Bargmann, a neurobiologist at The Rockefeller University in New York, and William Newsome, a neurobiologist at Stanford Medical School in California, are the co-chairs of a committee announced by the White House on Tuesday for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative. That long title has been dubbed BRAIN for short.
Both Newsome and Bargmann are at the top of the neurobiology pyramid, professors at premiere institutions, winners of dozens of scientific honors and awards, authors of research papers in prestigious journals. As Newsome noted wryly, "I don't need this aggravation, to some extent, but I think this is really important."
Bargmann, who recalls watching the first Apollo moon landing in 1969 as an 8-year-old, this year won a $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her work on the genetics of neural circuits and behavior and synaptic guidepost molecules.
This project was something no scientist, so far, has turned down.
"If there's going to be a program to try to do something significant and the taxpayer's going to be involved in it, you make the time to try to help," she said. "As far as I know, everyone who was asked to help said yes."
The BRAIN effort isn't quite like any other, Bargmann said. Even the Human Genome Project had a more focused goal at the start: to determine the precise sequence of chemical "letters" that constitute the full complement of human DNA.
In contrast, before BRAIN tries to solve a single mystery of the human mind, it will build the scientific infrastructure to be able to ask the right questions. Like the U.S. space program in the 1960s, she said, BRAIN could get the public excited about science in a way that other research has not.
"I believe that brain science will be to the 21st century what quantum physics and DNA molecular biology were to the 20th century," Newsome said.
The ultimate goal is to decode brain activity to help researchers understand complex ailments ranging from traumatic brain injury to schizophrenia to Alzheimer's disease, which cost Americans $500 billion annually, according to Francis Collins, the head of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, who picked Newsome and Bargmann for the job.
The program would initially be funded with $100 million called for in the president's fiscal 2014 budget, set for release on Wednesday, which is subject to approval by Congress. That sum would be divided among the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation, with partners from the private sector.
Bargmann found it refreshing that Obama said the project would provide tools for understanding Alzheimer's and psychiatric disease, but he did not promise cures. "It isn't promising too much," she said.
SWITCHING BRAIN CELLS ON AND OFF
She was also encouraged by support from two prominent Republicans: House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Newt Gingrich, former presidential candidate and former House speaker, who credited Obama for taking "a very important step toward the most dramatic breakthroughs in human health."
The Democratic president does not often get such enthusiasm from his Republican opponents.
Fast-developing technology makes this "a unique moment in time" to make this inquiry, Newsome said.
"I think the brain is the most mysterious and complex entity in the universe," he said by telephone. "And I think that new technologies that have developed within the last five years give us a shot at cracking open the problem of the brain in ways that previous generations of scientists never dreamed."
One of these technologies, Newsome said, is optogenetics, which uses genetic engineering to make certain nerve cells in the brain sensitive to different kinds of light, exciting or inhibiting these cells depending on the light's wavelength.
That means scientists can artificially switch the brain's circuits on or off during behavior to see how they contribute to essential functions like vision, learning and decision-making, Newsome said.
The other technological leap of the last decade has been the ability to record the electrical activity of hundreds or even thousands of neurons, a big improvement over the previous requirement of studying one neuron at a time. Since the human brain is composed of some 100 billion neurons - nerve cells that pulse with electrochemical signals - the one-at-a-time approach slowed research to a crawl.
It's not just the number of neurons, but seeing how these billions of neurons interact with each other that could make a map of the brain a reality.
That map is likely to be less like an atlas on paper and more like an online traffic video, Bargmann said, "because the brain is never the same in any two people, and it's not the same in one person at two different times."
Both Bargmann and Newsome are working in their own laboratories on pieces of this puzzle. Newsome focuses on the brain's way of mediating visual perception and visually guided behavior (see his lab's site at monkeybiz.stanford.edu ).
Bargmann's research aims to tackle a big subject - how environment and genes interact to shape human behavior - by looking at the relatively simple neurological system of a worm. (see lab.rockefeller.edu/bargmann/ )
(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Vicki Allen)
Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research into Thonis-Heracleion, a sunken port-city that served as the gateway to Egypt in the first millennium BC, will be discussed at an international conference at the University of Oxford (15-17 March).
This obligatory port of entry, known as 'Thonis' by the Egyptians and 'Heracleion' by the Greeks, was where seagoing ships probably unloaded their cargoes to have them assessed by temple officials and taxes extracted before transferring them to Egyptian ships that went upriver. Before the foundation of Alexandria, it was one of the biggest commercial hubs in the Mediterranean because of its geographical position at the mouth of the Nile. The conference will also explore the wider maritime trading economy during the Late Period (664 BC until 332 BC).
The first traces of Thonis-Heracleion were found 6.5 kilometres off today's coastline by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) under the direction of Franck Goddio in 2000. The Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford is collaborating on the project with IEASM in cooperation with Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities.
In the ports of the city, divers and researchers are currently examining 64 Egyptian ships, dating between the eighth and second centuries BC, many of which appear to have been deliberately sunk. The project researchers say the ships were found beautifully preserved, lying in the mud of the sea-bed. With 700 examples of different types of ancient anchor, the researchers believe this represents the largest nautical collection from the ancient world.
'The survey has revealed an enormous submerged landscape with the remains of at least two major ancient settlements within a part of the Nile delta that was crisscrossed with natural and artificial waterways,' said Dr Damian Robinson, Director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Dr Robinson, who is overseeing the excavation of one of the submerged ships known as Ship 43, will discuss his first findings about the Egyptians' unique shipbuilding style. He will also shed new light on why the boats appear to have been deliberately sunk.
'One of the key questions is why several ship graveyards were created close to the port. Ship 43 appears to be part of a large cluster of at least ten other vessels in a large ship graveyard about a mile from the mouth of the River Nile,' explained Dr Robinson. 'This might not have been simple abandonment, but a means of blocking enemy ships from gaining entrance to the port-city. Seductive as this interpretation is, however, we must also consider whether these boats were sunk simply to use them for land reclamation purposes.'
The port and its harbour basins also contain a collection of customs decrees, trading weights, and evidence of coin production. The material culture, for example, coin weights, will also be discussed at the conference, placing this into the wider narrative of how maritime trade worked in the ancient world.
Elsbeth van der Wilt, working on the project from the University of Oxford, said: 'Thonis-Heracleion played an important role in the network of long-distance trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, since the city would have been the first stop for foreign merchants at the Egyptian border. Excavations in the harbour basins yielded an interesting group of lead weights, likely to have been used by both temple officials and merchants in the payment of taxes and the purchasing of goods. Amongst these are an important group of Athenian weights. They are a significant archaeological find because it is the first time that weights like these have been identified during excavations in Egypt.'
Sanda Heinz from the University of Oxford will share her findings on over 300 statuettes and amulets from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods, including Egyptian and Greek subjects. The majority depict Egyptian deities such as Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus. She said: 'The statuettes and amulets were all found underwater, and are generally in excellent condition. The statuettes allow us to examine their belief system and at the same time have wider economic implications. These figures were mass-produced at a scale hitherto unmatched in previous periods. Our findings suggest they were made primarily for Egyptians; however, there is evidence to show that some foreigners also bought them and dedicated them in temples abroad.'
Franck Goddio, Director of the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology and Visiting Senior Lecturer in Maritime Archaeology at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, commented: 'The discoveries we have made in Thonis-Heracleion since 2000 thanks to the work of a multidisciplinary team and the support of the Hilti Foundation are encouraging. Charts of the city's monuments, ports and channels are taking shape more clearly and further crucial information is gathered each year. The conference at Oxford University will present interesting results and might bring new clues and insights of the fascinating history of Thonis-Heracleion."
Franck Goddio will make a comprehensive presentation of the sacred topography of Thonis-Heracleion resulting from12 years of archaeological works on site.
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New Delhi: Corruption is a threat to the democratic fabric of the country and frustrates efforts to bring equity, President Pranab Mukherjee said here on Saturday, delivering the 14th DP Kohli Memorial Lecture organised by the CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was founded by DP Kohli, who served as its director from 1963-68. The agency enters its golden jubilee year this year.
The President said the government should work to make healthcare more affordable. The title of the president's address was "Good governance: Empowering Institutions, Society and Public".
The President said the country was at a crossroads, and could not lose the momentum of change. He said basic principles of good governance had already been incorporated into the constitution by the nation's founding fathers.
"Good governance means existence of elaborate architecture that has the good of the people as the only focus," the President said.
Noting that the root of poor governance was lethargy (in response) to change, he said "good governance should be our unwavering goal."
He said law enforcement agencies should speed up the process of investigating allegations.
The President said that though India had made development strides, it ranked lower than major developed economies in parameters such as government effectiveness.
"There is scope to improve participatory decision-making," the president said, noting that poverty still hovered around 30 percent.
The president said affordable healthcare should be the priority, as many people were forced into poverty by the high cost of medicines and medical services.
The president noted how there was emphasis now on empowerment with entitlement, and cited rights-based legislations, including the right to education and the right to information enacted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as examples.
He said the direct benefit scheme would help bring greater transparency.
"Corruption is a threat to the democratic fabric? It frustrates efforts to bring equity," the President said.
Complimenting the CBI on its work, he said it was the "most sought after agency for investigation" by every section of society.
He also released the golden jubilee logo of the CBI and the gave President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service to six CBI officers.
Bharat Bhushan Sharma, a constable posted in Jammu, was given the DP Kohli Best Detective Constable Award.
CBI director Ranjit Sinha said the golden jubilee was also an occasion for introspection and the people expected the agency to act with greater effectiveness and speed.
He said the agency would frame a plan to bring it on par with the finest law enforcing institutions in the world.
A recent report by the United Nations states that out of the world?s seven billion people, six billion have a mobile phone, but only 4.5 billion have a modern toilet. In India, there are almost 900 million cell phone users, but nearly 70 percent of the population doesn?t have access to ?proper sanitation.? Jan Eliasson, the UN Deputy Secretary General has called this a ??silent disaster? that reflects the extreme poverty and huge inequalities in world today.?
Despite the lack of sanitation, most people are able to afford a mobile phone with a wide range available for [$15] or less and the price of calls reducing from [15c] a minute to [3c] a minute in the last decade.
This report focuses on the negative: the lack of sanitation for those in abject poverty, but it fails to note the extraordinary fact that people living in poverty have access to a device that was, until recently, a luxury item for wealthy Americans. Tim Worstall, a contributor on Forbes.com, addresses this report in a recent article:
It?s possible to be a little cynical about this phones versus thrones number though. Actual flush toilets aren?t in fact the problem. What is the provision of water to flush them and a sewage system to flush them into. Both of which are largely government provided. While mobile phone systems are largely private company provided. Whether you want to call it the lust for profit or the greater efficiency of the private sector, it won?t surprise the more right leaning of us that phones do have a greater market reach than toilets.
Andreas Widmer, president of The Carpenter?s Fund in Switzerland, has spoken a great deal about small businesses, aid, and investing in Africa. In an interview with PovertyCure, he explains causes of poverty:
Being poor has nothing to do with one or two dollars per day. Being poor has something to do with being excluded from networks of productivity and exchange, that means cell phones, internet, banks, financial systems, educational systems, trading systems to be allowed to trade, to have free trade, to have products from here that are produced here, to actually be allowed into other countries. If we?re not allowing that to happen, you can?t have entrepreneurs here grow their companies properly
Cell phones are now commonplace in poverty-stricken countries because of the work of dedicated entrepreneurs. Cell phones have also given many people the means to create wealth for themselves and their families. Michael Joseph, the founder and former CEO of Safaricom, the largest cell phone service provider in Kenya, gave an interview about foreign aid and the effect of mobile phone technology in Africa. He said:
Foreign aid changes people?s lives temporarily and that?s it, when it?s gone it?s gone. Mobile phones have made a huge impact in places like Kenya.
If you look at Africa in general, in the developing world in general, there is very little direct investment and very few jobs are created from the outside. People, particularly in Kenya, want to work, they need to work, they don?t just sit around and wait for people to come and help them. People in Kenya tend to be quite industrious. The mobile phone has been almost perfect for that because it allows people now to create jobs for themselves. They don?t always have to come to the city. There are now telecommunications facilities throughout Kenya so it?s helping people create small businesses.
In Kenya 70 percent of our economy is in the informal sector. This means that a lot of the people are just doing small jobs, or are small-scale farmers, they?re just doing work on the side of the road, they sell things, they?re traders. And they?re all doing it because the mobile phone has allowed them to do it. I?ve said many times I think half the GDP growth in Kenya comes because of the mobile phone revolution, not because of anything else. It has provided these people means of communication.
?
Particularly things like money transfer, which we have been doing now for nearly two years, it has made a huge impact on people?s lives.
People no longer have to travel miles and miles to take money to people to buy goods and services. They can send the money by phone and the goods and services will arrive.
Safaricom began a mobile banking service call M-PESA (which means ?mobile money? in Swahili) a few years ago. This is a microfinancing service that allows anyone with a passport or national ID to transfer, withdraw, or deposit money. Users don?t need any kind of bank account, they simply need their mobile phones and then funds can easily be moved via SMS. This service has been tremendous for small businesses in Africa. It ?has helped open opportunities for Kenyans and impacted many lives in many positive ways.?M-PESA creates a feeling of comfort at the back of the mind of every Kenyan.?
Microfinancing has gone a long way to helping alleviate poverty. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work with microfinancing. Nobelprize.org summarizes Yunus?s work:
Banks in the traditional system have been reluctant to lend money to anyone unable to give some form or other of security. Grameen Bank, on the other hand, works on the assumption that even the poorest of the poor can manage their own financial affairs and development given suitable conditions. The instrument is microcredit: small long-term loans on easy terms.
When Grameen Bank was awarded the Peace Prize in 2006, more than seven million borrowers had been granted such loans. The average amount borrowed was 100 dollars. The repayment percentage was very high. Over 95 per cent of the loans went to women or groups of women. Experience showed that that ensured the best security for the bank and the greatest beneficial effect for the borrowers? families.
Yunus began his work in Bangladesh in 1983; he was ?fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right.? He says that he ?saw how people suffered for tiny little money, and they had to go to the moneylender to borrow the money and get started with their life and whatever activities they are involved with.? Now microfinancing occurs, not just in Bangledash through Grameen Bank, but all over the world. Services like M-PESA and the ease of buying and using cell phones has made it even easier for people to utilize microfinancing, start new businesses, and full themselves out of poverty. For a more detailed explanation of microfinancing, check out PovertyCure?s Microfinance page.
It is certainly a terrible thing that there are almost three billion people in the world living without proper sanitation. Nevertheless, that does not mean it?s a bad thing that all but one billion people have a working cell phone. Hard working and creative individuals are bettering the lives of millions. Microfinancing coupled with mobile phone technology is providing countless opportunities for people living in poverty to better themselves and provide for their families.
In this Thursday, April 4, 2013, photo, Trader Anthony Riccio, left, and specialist Peter Giacchi work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Thursday, April 4, 2013, photo, Trader Anthony Riccio, left, and specialist Peter Giacchi work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks fell on Wall Street Friday after the government reported a sharp slowdown in hiring last month that was far worse than economists had expected.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended 40.86 points lower at 14,565.25, a loss of 0.3 percent. The index was down as much as 171 points in the early going, then rose gradually through the rest of the day to reclaim much of its early loss.
U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported. That's half the average of the previous six months. The report was a disappointment for investors following positive signs on housing and the job market over the winter.
The survey, one of the most closely watched indicators of the economy, dented investors' confidence that the U.S. was poised for a sustained recovery. The stock market has surged this year, pushing the Dow to another record high close on Tuesday. The index is still up 11.2 percent this year.
"Things are still looking decent, but there's no doubt that this was a bit of a disappointment," said Brad Sorensen, Charles Schwab's director of market and sector research. "We're watching to see: is this the start of another soft patch?"
In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.70 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,553.28. The index logged its worst week of year, falling 1 percent.
Technology stocks fell the most of the 10 industry groups in the index, dropping 1 percent. Among big decliners in tech stocks, Cisco Systems fell 43 cents, or 2 percent, to $20.61. Oracle dropped 34 cents, or 1 percent, to $32.03.
Investors were reducing their exposure to risk. The utilities and telecommunications industries bucked the downward trend. Both rose 0.4 percent. The rich dividends and stable earnings provided by those companies make them attractive to investors who want to play it safe.
Natural gas companies were among the best performers on the S&P 500 as the price of the fuel rose 4.5 percent on concerns about supplies. The price of the fuel has risen 21 percent since the start of the year. Cabot Oil & Gas climbed $3.32, or 5.1 percent, to $67.96 and WPX Energy gained 80 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $16.15.
Stocks pared their early losses as some investors inferred that slowing U.S. growth meant that the Federal Reserve would stick to its stimulus program. The central bank is buying $85 billion dollars in bonds every month as part of an effort to revive the economy. Its actions have been a big factor pushing the stock market higher this year.
Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial, said the slowdown in hiring made it more likely that the Fed would continue with its easy-money policy, which includes keeping interest rates at historically low levels.
Investors will shift their focus to earnings reports next week.
Alcoa, the first company in the Dow index to report earnings, will release its first-quarter financial results after the markets close Monday. Analysts expect profits for S&P 500 companies to rise 0.6 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, according to S&P Capital IQ. That compares with an increase of 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, plunged from 1.76 percent to 1.71 percent. The yield fell as low as 1.69 percent, the lowest since December. The benchmark rate has declined sharply over the last month, from 2.06 percent on March 11, as demand for low-risk assets increased amid mounting evidence that growth in the U.S. economy is slowing.
Matthew Coffina, an editor at Morningstar StockInvestor, said stocks are still a better investment than bonds over the next decade because bonds will be vulnerable to any rise in inflation or interest rates. "We still have a strong preference for stocks," Coffina said.
The Nasdaq composite, which includes many technology companies, fell 21.12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 3,203.86.
F5 Networks, a network equipment and service provider based in Seattle, plunged 19 percent, the most of any S&P stock, after slashing its profit and revenue forecast. The company said its contract bookings fell sharply, as did its business with the federal government. The stock lost $17.21, or 19 percent, to $73.21.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which includes airlines like United and Delta Airlines and shipping companies like UPS and FedEx, was down 3.5 percent for the week, its biggest weekly decline since September. The index is seen as a leading indicator of the broader market.
Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel production could revolutionize alternative energy marketPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Zeke Barlow bzeke@vt.edu 540-231-5417 Virginia Tech
New method is environmentally friendly and inexpensive
A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.
"Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil fuels," said Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering "Hydrogen is one of the most important biofuels of the future."
Zhang and his team have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory. Zhang's method can be performed using any source of biomass.
The discovery is a featured editor's choice in an online version of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, International Edition.
This new environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen utilizes renewable natural resources, releases almost no zero greenhouse gasses, and does not require costly or heavy metals. Previous methods to produce hydrogen are expensive and create greenhouse gases.
The U.S. Department of Energy says that hydrogen fuel has the potential to dramatically reduce reliance of fossil fuels and automobile manufactures are aggressively trying to develop vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells. Unlike gas-powered engines that spew out pollutants, the only byproduct of hydrogen fuel is water. Zhang's discovery opens the door to an inexpensive, renewable source of hydrogen.
Jonathan R. Mielenz, group leader of the bioscience and technology biosciences division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who is familiar with Zhang's work but not affiliated with this project, said this discovery has the potential to have a major impact on alternative energy production.
"The key to this exciting development is that Zhang is using the second most prevalent sugar in plants to produce this hydrogen," he said. "This amounts to a significant additional benefit to hydrogen production and it reduces the overall cost of producing hydrogen from biomass."
Mielenz said Zhang's process could find its way to the marketplace as quickly as three years if the technology is available. Zhang said when it does become commercially available, it has the possibility of making an enormous impact.
"The potential for profit and environmental benefits are why so many automobile, oil, and energy companies are working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the transportation of the future," Zhang said. "Many people believe we will enter the hydrogen economy soon, with a market capacity of at least $1 trillion in the United States alone."
Obstacles to commercial production of hydrogen gas from biomass previously included the high cost of the processes used and the relatively low quantity of the end product.
But Zhang thinks he has found the answers to those problems.
For seven years, Zhang's team has been focused on finding non-traditional ways to produce high-yield hydrogen at low cost, specifically researching enzyme combinations, discovering novel enzymes, and engineering enzymes with desirable properties.
The team liberates the high-purity hydrogen under mild reaction conditions at 122 degree Fahrenheit and normal atmospheric pressure. The biocatalysts used to release the hydrogen are a group of enzymes artificially isolated from different microorganisms that thrive at extreme temperatures, some of which could grow at around the boiling point of water.
The researchers chose to use xylose, which comprises as much as 30 percent of plant cell walls. Despite its abundance, the use of xylose for releasing hydrogen has been limited. The natural or engineered microorganisms that most scientists use in their experiments cannot produce hydrogen in high yield because these microorganisms grow and reproduce instead of splitting water molecules to yield pure hydrogen.
To liberate the hydrogen, Virginia Tech scientists separated a number of enzymes from their native microorganisms to create a customized enzyme cocktail that does not occur in nature. The enzymes, when combined with xylose and a polyphosphate, liberate the unprecedentedly high volume of hydrogen from xylose, resulting in the production of about three times as much hydrogen as other hydrogen-producing microorganisms.
The energy stored in xylose splits water molecules, yielding high-purity hydrogen that can be directly utilized by proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Even more appealing, this reaction occurs at low temperatures, generating hydrogen energy that is greater than the chemical energy stored in xylose and the polyphosphate. This results in an energy efficiency of more than 100 percent a net energy gain. That means that low-temperature waste heat can be used to produce high-quality chemical energy hydrogen for the first time. Other processes that convert sugar into biofuels such as ethanol and butanol always have energy efficiencies of less than 100 percent, resulting in an energy penalty.
In his previous research, Zhang used enzymes to produce hydrogen from starch, but the reaction required a food source that made the process too costly for mass production.
The commercial market for hydrogen gas is now around $100 billion for hydrogen produced from natural gas, which is expensive to manufacture and generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Industry most often uses hydrogen to manufacture ammonia for fertilizers and to refine petrochemicals, but an inexpensive, plentiful green hydrogen source can rapidly change that market.
"It really doesn't make sense to use non-renewable natural resources to produce hydrogen," Zhang said. "We think this discovery is a game-changer in the world of alternative energy."
###
Support for the current research comes from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. Additional resources were contributed by the Shell GameChanger Program, the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Biodesign and Bioprocessing Research Center, and the U.S. Department of Energy BioEnergy Science Center, along with the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. The lead author of the article, Julia S. Martin Del Campo, who works in Zhang's lab, received her Ph.D. grant from the Mexican Council of Science and Technology.
Nationally ranked among the top research institutions of its kind, Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences focuses on the science and business of living systems through learning, discovery, and engagement. The college's comprehensive curriculum gives more than 3,100 students in a dozen academic departments a balanced education that ranges from food and fiber production to economics to human health. Students learn from the world's leading agricultural scientists, who bring the latest science and technology into the classroom.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel production could revolutionize alternative energy marketPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Zeke Barlow bzeke@vt.edu 540-231-5417 Virginia Tech
New method is environmentally friendly and inexpensive
A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.
"Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil fuels," said Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering "Hydrogen is one of the most important biofuels of the future."
Zhang and his team have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory. Zhang's method can be performed using any source of biomass.
The discovery is a featured editor's choice in an online version of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, International Edition.
This new environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen utilizes renewable natural resources, releases almost no zero greenhouse gasses, and does not require costly or heavy metals. Previous methods to produce hydrogen are expensive and create greenhouse gases.
The U.S. Department of Energy says that hydrogen fuel has the potential to dramatically reduce reliance of fossil fuels and automobile manufactures are aggressively trying to develop vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells. Unlike gas-powered engines that spew out pollutants, the only byproduct of hydrogen fuel is water. Zhang's discovery opens the door to an inexpensive, renewable source of hydrogen.
Jonathan R. Mielenz, group leader of the bioscience and technology biosciences division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who is familiar with Zhang's work but not affiliated with this project, said this discovery has the potential to have a major impact on alternative energy production.
"The key to this exciting development is that Zhang is using the second most prevalent sugar in plants to produce this hydrogen," he said. "This amounts to a significant additional benefit to hydrogen production and it reduces the overall cost of producing hydrogen from biomass."
Mielenz said Zhang's process could find its way to the marketplace as quickly as three years if the technology is available. Zhang said when it does become commercially available, it has the possibility of making an enormous impact.
"The potential for profit and environmental benefits are why so many automobile, oil, and energy companies are working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the transportation of the future," Zhang said. "Many people believe we will enter the hydrogen economy soon, with a market capacity of at least $1 trillion in the United States alone."
Obstacles to commercial production of hydrogen gas from biomass previously included the high cost of the processes used and the relatively low quantity of the end product.
But Zhang thinks he has found the answers to those problems.
For seven years, Zhang's team has been focused on finding non-traditional ways to produce high-yield hydrogen at low cost, specifically researching enzyme combinations, discovering novel enzymes, and engineering enzymes with desirable properties.
The team liberates the high-purity hydrogen under mild reaction conditions at 122 degree Fahrenheit and normal atmospheric pressure. The biocatalysts used to release the hydrogen are a group of enzymes artificially isolated from different microorganisms that thrive at extreme temperatures, some of which could grow at around the boiling point of water.
The researchers chose to use xylose, which comprises as much as 30 percent of plant cell walls. Despite its abundance, the use of xylose for releasing hydrogen has been limited. The natural or engineered microorganisms that most scientists use in their experiments cannot produce hydrogen in high yield because these microorganisms grow and reproduce instead of splitting water molecules to yield pure hydrogen.
To liberate the hydrogen, Virginia Tech scientists separated a number of enzymes from their native microorganisms to create a customized enzyme cocktail that does not occur in nature. The enzymes, when combined with xylose and a polyphosphate, liberate the unprecedentedly high volume of hydrogen from xylose, resulting in the production of about three times as much hydrogen as other hydrogen-producing microorganisms.
The energy stored in xylose splits water molecules, yielding high-purity hydrogen that can be directly utilized by proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Even more appealing, this reaction occurs at low temperatures, generating hydrogen energy that is greater than the chemical energy stored in xylose and the polyphosphate. This results in an energy efficiency of more than 100 percent a net energy gain. That means that low-temperature waste heat can be used to produce high-quality chemical energy hydrogen for the first time. Other processes that convert sugar into biofuels such as ethanol and butanol always have energy efficiencies of less than 100 percent, resulting in an energy penalty.
In his previous research, Zhang used enzymes to produce hydrogen from starch, but the reaction required a food source that made the process too costly for mass production.
The commercial market for hydrogen gas is now around $100 billion for hydrogen produced from natural gas, which is expensive to manufacture and generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Industry most often uses hydrogen to manufacture ammonia for fertilizers and to refine petrochemicals, but an inexpensive, plentiful green hydrogen source can rapidly change that market.
"It really doesn't make sense to use non-renewable natural resources to produce hydrogen," Zhang said. "We think this discovery is a game-changer in the world of alternative energy."
###
Support for the current research comes from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. Additional resources were contributed by the Shell GameChanger Program, the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Biodesign and Bioprocessing Research Center, and the U.S. Department of Energy BioEnergy Science Center, along with the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. The lead author of the article, Julia S. Martin Del Campo, who works in Zhang's lab, received her Ph.D. grant from the Mexican Council of Science and Technology.
Nationally ranked among the top research institutions of its kind, Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences focuses on the science and business of living systems through learning, discovery, and engagement. The college's comprehensive curriculum gives more than 3,100 students in a dozen academic departments a balanced education that ranges from food and fiber production to economics to human health. Students learn from the world's leading agricultural scientists, who bring the latest science and technology into the classroom.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New Delhi: Corruption is a threat to the democratic fabric of the country and frustrates efforts to bring equity, President Pranab Mukherjee said here on Saturday, delivering the 14th DP Kohli Memorial Lecture organised by the CBI.
A recent report by the United Nations states that out of the world?s seven billion people, six billion have a mobile phone, but only 4.5 billion have a modern toilet. In India, there are almost 900 million cell phone users, but nearly 70 percent of the population doesn?t have access to ?proper sanitation.? Jan Eliasson, the UN Deputy Secretary General has called this a ??silent disaster? that reflects the extreme poverty and huge inequalities in world today.?![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uZ5iXIjoFBWHsmAu6dbMwCsNLKCjr7a0p3LASjVWhieePmLWDTACTBCEjZ3JMw6tws90w-N4RkXKhJCDJSgcbNPDpwdLN5WrK3u78FRuY=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
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