anyone interested in bioplastics?
John Griessen
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=191376
and much research is patent-expired open-hardware-product usable.
Sometimes they file for patents on works like this,
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/36171/1/IND44285127.pdf
sometimes not.
There was talk in overview books from the 90's that GM starches or other plant products
could have a big impact on materials, and I'm searching for inexpensive ones to make
electronic product enclosures that resist composting for years, are rigid and strong,
or flexible and strong, and non-toxic. Most are just ordinary non GM plant components
like starches, and they can make tough materials, but cost more than ordinary materials
usually. For example, there is one green material usda will help us with that is made
with corn zein, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zein), and ethanol.
The process involves adding alcohol to a water/alcohol/zein mix to increase the
alcohol concentration until a polymerization change happens, then compress into a mold,
leaving some dirty water/ethanol
that would best be reprocessed and made from scratch by filtering and distilling...
But that would have the ATF and the tax men on you -- possibly quickly.
Anyone know some good leads for me to track down to inexpensive uncomplicated ways to mold
solid tough objects out of green resins?
John Griessen
Cathal Garvey
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Lucas
Polyhydroxybutyrate) over the summer, which is some pretty standard
bioplastic. You can get E coli to over-express the synthase genes and
make a ton of the stuff if you want, and the only substrate required
is a carbon source (glucose/soybean oil/linseed oil are the most
common). The tricky part is really getting the oligomers crosslinked
once you have the plastic produced. There are a variety of chemical
agents you can get from Sigma, each with varying degrees of
volatility. Using UV isn't very feasible since it takes ages (on the
order of 10+ hours).
Let me know if you want some references or info on the genes.
On a tangential note, there's also this weird protein called
transglutaminase that basically crosslinks other proteins. (It's sold
as a 'meat glue' commercially...) This could be used as a pseudo
'plastic' (more of a hydrogel, actually). The issue here is that the
commercial stuff is a little too active, and I'm not sure how it
behaves when produced by a cell. Pretty cool stuff though, and really
cheap, if someone's looking for something weird & harmless to play
around with.
On Nov 22, 12:38 pm, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You might be able to achieve that ethanol precipitation/polymerisation trick
> using Methanol or Isopropanol instead, which would bypass ATF and tax law.
>
> Broadly speaking, one of the biggest chemical constraints a dediated
> DIYbioer will find in trying to access lab chemicals is overregulation of
> ethanol. 70%+ Ethanol, and not the variety of potentially deadly bleaches
> and acids you can buy in stores, is controlled as if you could use it to
> detonate cities. You'll end up explaining yourself to duties and excise,
> probably the police, and the suppliers. But it's ok to buy rat poison
> without ID. D:
>
> Back on topic: is "Polyproline" as straightforward as it sounds? Because if
> PP is just a matter of getting lots of polymerised proline, you could
> probably GM a bacteria to make it. Although it might be toxic, so perhaps
> not.
>
> I do recall that Brian Degger was working a lot with DIY bioplastics for a
> while, particularly ones made from milk protein. Hopefully he'll chime in
> here. ;)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > The USDA supports it here and there,
>
> > .
John Griessen
> You can get E coli to over-express the synthase genes and
> make a ton of the stuff if you want, and the only substrate required
> is a carbon source (glucose/soybean oil/linseed oil are the most
> common). The tricky part is really getting the oligomers crosslinked
> once you have the plastic produced.
Are you saying oligomers are the PHB 3 polymer chains and UV cross linking
connects those even more through those side HC chains? What if the UV
exposure was done intensely to thin layers a la 3D printing?
What was it like to grow the e. coli with this over-expression? Smelly? Anaerobic?
Compost? Do they store it all in their cytoplasm, or excrete some of it?
You can get a ton? If you got a ton, would you have 400 tons of goo to strain it out of?
Hmmm... :-)
The Wikipedia
article says costs have been too high before... were they talking about the same
thing? I found a mention in "Plastics from Bacteria: Natural Functions and Applications"
of maize and sugar cane with modified proteins for making extra PHB resulting in
2% dry weight in vitro, and 1% in leaves of plantlets. What was your experience like
as far as separating PHB from cell suspensions?
John
Digging and reading further....
John Griessen
> bioplastic. You can get E coli to over-express the synthase genes and
> make a ton
How about this though? It promises high yield, and so low cost possibly...
http://www.ejbiotechnology.info/content/vol11/issue3/full/2/reprint.html
excerpt: " Recently, the highest PHAs production was
obtained from R. sphaeroides strain 14F which showed (3.5
g/l PHA, 60% DCW) cultivated in modified GM medium
where malate was substituted by 5 g/l fructose under two-
stage aerobic dark condition (Lorrungruang et al. 2006)"
3.5 g/l How would you separate the cells from that? Centrifuging might get
partial results and save the broth for more growth after adjusting food levels.
Did any of your over-expressing bacteria do like that yield?
JG
greenhouse flower
General Oya
I'm researching Morgellons fibers. There is some speculation that it may be related with the use bioplastics and nanotech, possibly by way of filamentous phages not unlike the iiv (irridescent invertebrate virus) suspected in the colony collapse disorder of the bee populations. I've heard posited that baculoviral (a transposon vector) expression in organophosphates/biopesticides may allow the bees to express this virus which is normally only expressed in worms. The new bioplastics and work with fiberoptic qualities of transgenic silk proteins make for an interesting train of investigations. I would be interested in finding out as much as any of you might have to offer. The current CDC investigation which was ordered by congress in 2006 has been buried and co-opted by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and my connections within the security community show this subject to be fairly firewalled.
I saw this summer during iGEM that there are already several pieces within the bb catalog for experimentation with bioplastics, and am keenly interested in how they are developed commercially as well. Is it true that many of the new auto interiors and even more commercial products such as ps3 controllers use these materials?
Thanks,
Ryan
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John Griessen
> interested in finding out as much as any of you might have to offer.
I bet you are. Even though "my connections within the security community show this subject to be fairly firewalled"
So, you would be a spook? Looking for leaks?
I haven't made any bioplastic containers yet, but when I do, I'll tell all about their leak
resistance or leakiness.
JG
Aaron Hicks
Hey guys,
I'm researching Morgellons fibers.
An interesting paper that crossed my desk a few months back: Intra Oral Morgellons Disease or Delusional Parasitosis: A First Case Report, by Dovigi.
Long story made short: fibers found in an oral lesion were analyzed by polarized light microscopy, and found not to be human hair. They more closely resemble synthetic monofilament. They possessed tapered ends, and had a homogeneous cross section.
However, when examined under SEM (by EDAX, I presume, although I'm too lazy to look and see), the fibers were found to contain primarily carbon and oxygen; considerably smaller peaks were found for gold (used in sputtering the samples), with chlorine and sodium appearing barely above the background noise, and even smaller peaks (poorly discerned from background) as arsenic and bromine.
Interestingly, "[t]here are no indications of nitrogen or other elements that would support a protein composition for this fiber."
By happy coincidence, I know the analyst who performed the work (at a Research I institution), and trust the results.
The author suggests the fibers were implanted by the patient, but fail to offer any source for the fibers.
Some months ago, I was provided a number of fiber samples through a friend of a patient who was suffering these strange fiber growths. Neither the patient nor our mutual friend had ever heard of Morgellons. I have sent them on to a friend at what is probably the leading private microscopy lab in the country, with the promise that they would be analyzed by FT/IR when they get a little free time on the machine (given my budget of $0 for the analysis) as a quid pro quo for some rather unusual samples which I provided at no charge for their reference collection. In the meantime, I referred the individual to a dermatologist who is board certified in that specialty, as well as dermatopathology. Failing that, presumably a psychiatric consult is in order.
I don't rule out anything at this point.
-AJ