The Car Industry Interested in Lithium-Ion Batteries

The United States is ready to make lithium-ion batteries for cars. For that to happen, many car companies need to amalgamate into one big company. This one big company will be the lithium-ion battery industry in the United States. These lithium-ion batteries will run electric cars. Unfortunately, the US is losing to Asian countries. Mr. Greenberger, a lawyer specializing in clean technology, organized a new alliance of lithium-ion battery makers made up of fourteen big companies. Mr. Greenberger said and I quote,” The great age of automobiles lies ahead of us, not behind us.” The alliance plans to have a lithium-ion battery manufacturing in the United States. The ultimate goal is to be able to manufacture cars in the United States again using lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries are a type of rechargeable battery in which a lithium ion moves between the anode and cathode. An anode is an electrode through which electric current flows into a polarized electrical device. A cathode is an electrode through which positive electric current flows out of a polarized electrical device. The lithium ion moves from the anode to the cathode during discharge and from the cathode to the anode when charging.

As mentioned in the articlehttp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/electric-car-battery-makers-seek-federal-funds/?scp=2&sq=Alternative%20Energy%20Sources&st=cse, there are three essential reasons why we should use lithium-ion batteries. One reason is that they eliminate the use of petroleum. Secondly, these batteries are three times as efficient as internal combustion engines. Furthermore, they can be charged by sources such as the wind (wind mill energy) and the sun (solar energy).

Several large companies and many start-up companies have been working on lithium-ion batteries. Mr. Greenberger said and I quote,” The future of these batteries will depend on start-ups because it’s a start-up industry.” The US has the technology to make these efficient batteries, but there are two major problems though. One problem is building prototypes to simulate new batteries. The other one is building the factories required to manufacture the batteries. Mr. Greenberger also says and I quote,” One reason is that none of the auto manufacturers bought lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. So, there is not enough money to build prototypes for the batteries and factories”.

My opinion on this article is that it is interesting. It will be helpful for our future to be able to have cost-efficient, energy-efficient and more reliable source to use in cars. The gas prices have been going up and our economy is in a bad shape. So, with the help of the efficient lithium-ion batteries, we could have a better economy. Plus, I learned more about the element lithium. For example, I learned about its purpose in the society and what its made out of. I thought it was interesting when the lawyer, Mr. Greenberger said that we are five years behind the Asians. Hence, I think this article is interesting to read.

A Cure Found For the Disease Giardiasis

If you recently went to a different country and are finding yourself having the following symptoms:
*projectile vomiting

* roaring flatulence
* sulfurous belching
* explosive diarrhea.
You are under the attack of giardiasis, a form of suffering devised by the single-celled parasite known as giardia. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/science/16giar.html?_r=1&ref=science writes an article about this parasite. Giardiasis can linger onto you for months, because the parasite is able to play a defense against the immune system. The giardia has 190 coats. As the giardia “activates” one coat, the immune system is getting its army of antibodies ready. Once the immune system has generated antibodies against one coat, the parasite switches to another coat. There are some two-hundred eighty cases of giardiasis in the world because of the parasite’s persistence and infectivity.

However, there is a noxious weakness in the giardia’s game of switching coats. Biologists at the Catholic University of Córdoba in Argentina led by Dr. Lujan have found a way to stop the parasite. Their cunning counter play is to make the parasite wear all of its coat “proteins” at the same time. This change in the parasite should serve as the perfect vaccine, because it immunizes the body to the full repertoire of giardia’s coat proteins all at once. This vaccine may also help in producing vaccines against any other single-celled parasites that play the game of coat switching to dodge the immune system. For example, malaria causes sleeping sickness and Leishmanias.

The biologists were able to identify the mechanism by which the parasite controls its coat proteins. Each of the parasite’s 190 coat genes is the recipe for making a different protein. To produce the coat, giardia does not switch these genes on one at a time. Instead, it leaves them all “turned” on, allowing each gene to generate into a messenger RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) copy of itself. The synthesis of proteins would usually be directed by messenger RNAs, but all of the messengers get destroyed by giardia except one which makes the coat of the day. To kill the other messenger RNAs, giardia has adapted an ancient cellular system known as RNA interference. The system is designed to destroy foreign RNA, like invading viruses. Dr.Lujan, a biologist said and I quote, “………so it was surprising to find it regulating a cell’s own RNAs”. Dr. Lujan believes this is the case. He proved his theory by disrupting giardia’s production of enzymes, which are components of the RNA interference system. He also said and I quote, “I did not yet know how the organism shifted between coats but suspected that the RNA interference system favored whichever messenger RNA happened to be the most abundant at the time, and destroyed all others.”

My opinion on this subject is that it is fascinating. Dr.Lujan and his team have made a great discovery. This discovery can be used to determine more about single-celled parasites. What’s really interesting about giardia is that it is an ancient type of eukaryote. At the end of the article, they write about the parasite. I learned three facts that I didn’t know before. One fact is that this parasite was one of the earliest branches of the eukaryotes. Another fact is that giardia lacks mitochondria, which is an organelle that every eukaryote has. The last fact is that it has two nuclei, while a normal eukaryote has one. Hence, I think that this article was very interesting.