Biofuels like ethanol are all the talk these days with ever increasing gas prices. The problem with ethanol is that it can only be made from sugars in plants like corn. Ethanol is made by fermenting sugars called hexoses with yeast. This is the most edible part of the plant. So think of a stalk of corn. It’s really tall and leafy. Then there’s the ear of corn that’s wrapped up in even more leaves. The only part of the plant that can be converted into ethanol is the white stuff inside the kernel. That’s a lot of waste.

Researchers in the Netherlands have found a way to make ethanol from agricultural waste (all those corn stalks and leaves) with the help of an enzyme found in the gut of Indian elephants and also fungus. The enzyme was actually discovered in elephant poop in 1984 and allows the elephants to convert pentose sugars like xylose to xylulose. Blah, blah, blah…what is she talking about? Simply put, we can’t digest pentose sugars and nether can yeast. This enzyme breaks down pentose sugars to something digestible.

The researchers in the Netherlands have taken the gene that produces this enzyme and have cloned into yeast except they used the gene isolated from a fungus. This gene allows the yeast to break down both kinds of sugars and improve the yield of bioethanol. There are still a few glitches. The yeast can’t tolerate the acids produced when the sugars are freed from plants, but the team has plans for making the yeast resistant and predict that they will be applied for ethanol production within the next five years.

I started noticing BP petroleum last year when we were in Colorado. We don’t have them in OKC. They pulled me in with their hip little flower symbol. It made them look so green and environmentally friendly. Yes, they are a petroleum company and sell gasoline, but they are also providers of alternative fuel sources like biodiesel.

When I heard all this I thought “cool� finally, a petroleum company that’s doing something new and innovative and working to make a better cleaner fuel. Then I heard about this on my way to work this morning.

They’re crooks just like all the other big companies! I am so naive. I almost fell for that stupid little flower symbol.

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don’t love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

But I don’t want to be Bert! I’d rather be Grover.

Mmmmm, new tent.

I can’t wait to set it up someplace besides our front yard.

My car wouldn’t start this morning. Stephanie saved my bacon by coming to get me. Not only am I still all alone, now I’m all alone without a car.

On the way to work, we passed a car stranded on the highway. It was on fire. So, it could be worse. I think I just need a new battery.

Chris left to drive a truck to Michigan yesterday with my Dad, so I’m home alone. I think it’s great when Chris gets these opportunities because, well, we need the money, but I’ve noticed that I’m not good at being home alone.

I don’t eat properly when Chris goes on these drives. It’s not uncommon for me to have a bag of Skittles for dinner. The most ambitious dinner was the time I had crackers with a can of tuna. Toast is also a good choice. Chris will call every evening to check in and he always asks me what I had for dinner. “Toast?! You had toast for dinner?� OK, it sounds bad when you say it like that, but at the time I thought toast for dinner was a really good idea.

Last I night I actually made myself a meal. Of course I did it with the intention that I could take the leftovers for lunch the next day. I had chicken with rice and squash. Yummy. It helped that I could make the rice and squash in the rice cooker at the same time and that I finally figured out that you can cook those frozen chicken tenders on the panini maker without thawing them first.

When Chris called last night, he asked me what I had for dinner. I told him about my fabulous meal. I think he was very impressed after he got over the initial shock.

People who suffer from migraines tend to have a higher sex drive than people who get only normal headaches. This is according to a study by researcher Timothy T. Houle, PhD. In fact the study found that female migraine sufferers are very similar to normal males in sexual desire.

Another study done by James R. Couch, MD, PhD found out by accident that some women could even cure their migraines by having orgasms. He was recruiting patients for a drug study. One of the women he interviewed said that she could get rid of her migraines if she could “just have a good banging orgasm�. After that, he started asking other female patients what had happened if they had ever had sex when having a migraine. He found that about 20% had actually cured their migraines through orgasm.

Researchers already know that migraines are linked to low serotonin levels. Clinical depression is also linked to low serotonin level and many antidepressant drugs, like Prozac, work by raising serotonin levels in the brain. This raise in serotonin can cause loss of sexual desire. The newest class of migraine drugs work the same way.

This information will make it easier to design new treatments for migraines that have fewer side affects. Plus think of how much more fun it will be to rid yourself of a migraine.

Limon may talk about how boring her life is, but I think I’m creeping ahead of her in the Who’s-The-Most-Boring category. All I blog about is Science. My life has become so mundane and predictable that there’s nothing else to blog about. I do the same thing every day. Sometimes I’m good and do something like clean the bathroom or vacuum, but most of the time I’m just working on forming a Cindy shape into the couch.

There are things I could blog about, like the really cool bracelet I made this week. But that would require taking a picture of it and posting it and all the other things involved in posting a picture. I’m too lazy. But trust me when I say it’s a cool bracelet. It’s the first piece of jewelry I’ve ever made that didn’t require string.

I could also blog about taking Hooper for walks at the park. We’ve been really good about taking him twice a week now and he loves it. He’s just so entertaining to watch. I don’t know if it’s because he was fixed later in his doggy life, but that dog has to pee on every thing. EVERY THING. And when he can’t pee on it, he poops on it. We have witnessed him actually placing his butt up against a tree to poop on it. He looks totally retarded and you can’t help but laugh at him. He acts like he’s on crack or something.

But really that’s it. Maybe there will be more to blog about in August when I go to Colorado. Until then you’re just going to have to be forced to learn something science related.

It’s summertime and the sound of tree frogs chirping at night is deafening at my parents’ house. But we love these little guys anyway. They’re so cute and green and hang up side down in the craziest places. But have you ever wondered how they do that?

I always imagined that the frogs had little suction cups attached to their fingers, but apparently that’s not right. Tree frogs always secrete mucus from their toe pads and it has always been believed that it is this mucus that allows the frogs to cling to things like ceilings. Well, that’s not true either. Walter Federle and colleagues can demonstrate that a frog’s toe pads are in direct and dry contact with what ever surface it might be standing on. Tree frogs squeeze the mucus out through little channels that run in a hexagonal pattern on the toe pads.

It’s obvious the frogs use the mucus for something, just not as glue. It could be possible that the frogs use a similar sticking method as geckos. Geckos use microscopic hairlike structures called seta which in themselves contain a bunch of even smaller hairlike structures called spatulae. All of these tiny hairlike things create so much friction on surfaces that this allows the geckos to stick.

Human engineers are especially interested in figuring out how these creatures can stick so well. One useful application would be in creating tires that have better traction and can grip the road. Then there are the obvious and more fun uses for this technology. Eventually, every kid will be able to buy gecko gloves and socks that will allow them to literally climb the walls.

The other morning I was at the Y getting ready for work when this woman came up and asked me about my toiletry bag. I love my toiletry bag. It’s the first thing Chris has ever let me buy from QVC and that’s only because he wanted one too. It’s called The Everything Bag because you’re supposed to be able to get everything in there like full-size shampoo and deodorant bottles. I can get just about everything in my bag except a few things like my contact solution and hairspray, but if I really need those things I just shove them in Chris’s bag.

The woman thought the bag would make a great graduation gift for her niece. I told her that I had gotten it from QVC, but that it had been a while ago. Then I told her that I bet she could find it online, maybe even at QVC. She kind of wrinkled her nose then said “Maybe one of the local luggage shops will have it�. That’s when I realized that she wasn’t wrinkling her nose at QVC, but at shopping on the internet.

Why are people so afraid to shop online? My mother is the same way. To this day, she still insists that it was her internet provider that gave out her credit card number to internet thieves. It doesn’t matter that Chris and I both have told her (a thousand times) that your credit card can be compromised anywhere you use it. Anywhere! And trust me, she uses it everywhere. Heck, I’ve compromised my own card just by stupidly sending the card number in an email to my sister-in-law.

I just don’t get it. Everytime you get in a car there is a high probability that you’ll get smashed up in a four-car pile-up, but does that keep you from driving or riding in cars? You know what? I’m scared of the stove. It gets really hot and I could burn myself. So, from now on, Chris will have to do all the cooking or ordering of the take-out. Yeah, that sounds good.