MIT Researchers Harness Viruses To Split Water

ByronScott writes "A team of researchers at MIT has just announced that they have successfully modified a virus to split apart molecules of water, paving the way for an efficient and non-energy-intensive method of producing hydrogen fuel. 'The team, led by Angela Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules. Over time, however, the virus-wires would clump together and lose their effectiveness, so the researchers added an extra step: encapsulating them in a microgel matrix, so they maintained their uniform arrangement and kept their stability and efficiency.'"

Comments

Re:Hopefully they aren't too effective..

[LinuxIsGarbage]

It would balance out the effect of the sea level rising from global warming. Plus lots of hydrogen!

Re:Hopefully they aren't too effective..

[Red Flayer]

I'm curious, was this something you just didn't consider, or were you being disingenuous?

Nope, I just picked the very first country on your list. It holds for pretty much every country... as infant mortality has dropped, fertility has also dropped. Not saying it's causal.

India? Infant mortality dropped in half over the same period. Indonesia? Same result.

Never mind the fact that food production growth has slowed down significantly.

I'm sure you can do algebra too, so I'll let you calculate what impact these whole number decreases in all the world's most populous countries' fertility rates has in the face of fractional differences in mortality rates. So...

What do you mean whole number compared to fractional, do you think that makes a difference on its face? Are you trying to make the case that population growth is not exponential? I can't figure out what, exactly, argument you are offering that would counter Malthus here... other than name-calling. You point to a single table that doesn't tell the whole truth, and somehow you think that's enough? You're missing infant mortality, child mortality, food production, lots of details in the Malthusian calculation. And yet you think you've somehow demonstrated that the food supply will continue to outpace population growth.

Oh well. No use arguing with people who are content to be ignorant, or can't be bothered to actually make an informed point.

HAND.