For all you academic types...

[EvilMel]

If you're on campus tomorrow, I'm giving a talk during the microbiology department's colloquium about alternative fuels.

It's at 3:40 or so (not sure if I'm going first or second...man, I hope first) in Walters Life Sciences M307.

It's basically about our study trying to find better enzymes for breaking down the lignin and/or lignocellulose portion of woody plants (or to find organisms with this capability).

I may suck...I may not. I'm hoping not.

 

[ct_vol]

Good luck with your talk... I have to work, so I won't be able to make it...

 

[GPhiAce]

If I can remember the time and figure out where Walter's is, I will show up.

 

[Pandarian]

neato. That sounds really interesting Mel. Do you have a paper on it?

 

[macclellan]

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine. Yeah, lignin is a bitc#!

On a slightly related note, tomorrow night we've got two highly esteemed philosophers discussing the problem of evil...we got Dr. Alvin Plantinga from Notre Dame (one of the most famous living philosophers who works in epistemology and philosophy of religion) and our very own Dr. Richard Gale (philosophy of time and philosophy of religion, Prof. Emeritus from Pitt). This is about as big as it gets as far as philosophy is concerned around here, excepting our Ethics of Pharmaceuticals and Energy Ethics conferences over the last two years...

7pm in Clarence Brown Theater

 

[Fishboy42]

You'll do fine Mel!
I have to work too, but that does sound really interesting; someone take notes

 

[goreefer]

Remember that you are the expert, after all you are the one giving the lecture...

 

[Runner]

Best wishes in the lecture and even better wishes in finding a way to make fuel from plants.

I suppose the switchgrass thing (grassoline, Shaw shine, etc.) did not pan out locally.

 

[EvilMel]

Why do you suppose that?

edit: Donny, no...we haven't progressed far enough for a paper yet.

 

[Runner]

Because last I heard (knowledge dated 6 months ago) the mid-sized prototype was cancelled and they decided to just go with just the full-scale setup in Alabama. There may be research going on, but the big plant that had everybody buzzing isn't going up.

It would be great if we had something like that around here. I would have loved to be able to pass my lawn off as a cash crop and go 6 weeks without mowing.

 

[macclellan]

Scott, you mean the switchgrass ethanol plant in Vonore?

They just broke ground on construction on Tuesday:
http://www.agweb.com/get_article.aspx?pageid=146414

 

[Runner]

Hmmm. Must of been restarted then. I thought there was some kind of stink several months back about it wasting state and investor money for a large prototype plant that would not have a chance to pay back the investment. It needed to be full-scale like the one being built in Alabama to be cost-effective in and of itself and not just a big research project to provide info for the full-scale plant.

Good to know, though.

 

[EvilMel]

That's why I was surprised by what you said.

Farmer's are growing switchgrass here in TN and this is the first year of harvest, isn't it?

 

[fishdoc11]

Mel,
I hope the talk went well. I'm sure you didn't suck Sorry I couldn't make it.
I must say I admire you and everyone else that is working on projects like this to find alternative fuel sources. Good luck on finding the bugs/enzymes. I'm guessing you guys have considered or thought about the flora in the rumen? Pretty obvious I know but just a thought. Not sure if they could survive in vitro though and I don't think they break down lignin, only cellulose, so that probably wouldn't help anyway.

Chris