[Graeme]

Scientists Say They Have Found Millions of New Genes, Proteins

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U').S. researchers say they have discovered millions of new genes and thousands of new protein families that could help scientists develop alternative fuels or cope with environmental issues.

The new findings come from a voyage by a group of scientists starting in the waters off northeastern Canada, down to the Galapagos and Polynesian island groups, around the Horn of Africa, and to the waters off the east coast of the United States. As they traveled, they pumped seawater through a filter system and examined the results with a supercomputer.

The scientists say their current findings are the result of only a quarter of the data set. They say they expect to find many more new genes among the microbes and viruses they are analyzing. The new proteins and chemical processes they are discovering could help develop new ways to turn such things as light and carbon dioxide into energy.

[steam_cannon]

The first thing I thought when I read this was how most of the research grants available are energy research. So you have a bunch of biologists/oceanologists who tailored their plankton study so it would fit an energy research grant.

Like in the Vietnam era when government grants for science research had to be war related. So you had people doing research on rubber formulations and writing up how it could be used to make better boots for solders. Or researchers studying the viscosity of lubricant formulations, writing their grant application how lubricants are good for tanks...

Now it is true that a better understanding plankton could help in many areas, repairing damaged ocean ecosystems, producing fuels, new chemicals... But this is just a scientific "fishing expedition" with grant money. None of these things may materialize and this is a time when we need solutions in our hands!

But what is funny, to me, is the genes in these creatures are likely to be all patented, I find the idea of patenting genes amusing(aka stupid)...

[steam_cannon]

Another amusing thought. I was thinking it might be a good thing if we could engineer plankton that are more UV resistant. Since for various reasons the ozone is continuing to grow. And UV damages plankton... Of course if man did anything like this the "Law of unintended consequences" would probably bite us good.

The ozone holes gotten worse...
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/feb/oz ... -worsening

Another thought, I wonder what the depletion curves for the Oceans look like. When peak fishing happened or will be. It has already been predicted that the oceans will be dead in 4o years and with fishing getting harder, we probably passed Peak Fishing 50 years ago. Also I wonder what the draw down curves look like. Many people rely on the ocean for food to survive... Less food on land due to global warming, less water, less food in the oceans, what a world we have made.

Anyway, now is probably the time to study plankton DNA. Fish are starving because of less plankton in the oceans and growing dead zones. So many species of plankton may be dieing off. That makes me wonder when Peak Plankton was. Probably sometime in prehistory, following a precipitous drop starting at the beginning of industrialization...

[Twilight]

Depressing. They think they're going to find a few chemical reactions everyone else overlooked? Wake me up when photosynthesis is in a position to propel me and a tonne of metal at a steady speed for a few hours. Oh wait. We already have that.

[Twilight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('steam_cannon', 'A')nother thought, I wonder what the depletion curves for the Oceans look like. When peak fishing happened or will be. It has already been predicted that the oceans will be dead in 4o years and with fishing getting harder, we probably passed Peak Fishing 50 years ago. Also I wonder what the draw down curves look like. Many people rely on the ocean for food to survive... Less food on land due to global warming, less water, less food in the oceans, what a world we have made.

[Terrapin]

According to the article about this in the March 15 Nature one of the interesting things about it is that the rate of discovery of new protein families has continued to remain about the same indicating that there are a lot more yet to be found.

I'm not sure that the primary purpose of the voyage is quite as stated by VOA, but I do see it was partly funded by the DOE.

Here’s the home page for the project:
http://collections.plos.org/plosbiology/gos-2007.php

[Twilight]

Noise, in other words. We're going to hear so much of this.

[Newsseeker]

The movie Medicine Man has Sean Connery finding the cure for cancer in ants in South America and there does seem to be the idea that exotic locations will benefit mankind but I think in reality it is best to take everything with a grain of salt and remember that the kind of technological wonder weapons we are talking about are probably generations in the future (if natural resources weren't going to decline). I'm not holding my breath....