Few organisms can survive on their own, many live in symbiosis with others, some of which are parasitic. Dodder, a parasitic vine of the genus Cuscuta, grows rapidly, entwining and parasitizing its host plants by inserting haustoria (a special organ that only parasitic plants have that functions analogue to roots) into the host plants’ stems. The dodder vines often connect different host plants together and form a network.
The health of an ecosystem is founded on the complex interplay between its numerous inhabitants over a prolonged period of time. Therefore, assessing the state of an ecosystem solely on the basis of short-term changes in the number of different species it contains can lead to false conclusions.
The industrial biotechnology company evoxx technologies GmbH has become a part of the leading specialty biotech company Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited. Both companies announced on August 1 that they have entered into a binding agreement about the acquisition of 100% stake in evoxx technologies.
The rice husks replace a part of the rubber used for the outsoles, thereby decreasing the quantity of petroleum-based rubber in the shoe. Compared to conventional products, the `Re-Suede´ reduces CO2 emissions by 80%. This is because not just the outsole is made from waste materials. The synthetic Ultrasuede upper material is also comprised of recycled polyester fibres. The remake of Puma’s classic trainer ‘Suede’ was designed as an eco-product based mainly on recycling.
Transforming old coffee into new products - that is the idea behind the products of the Berlin start-up Kafform. On offer: coffee cups and saucers, that consist of 40% recycled coffee grounds. Each cup is made of 60 grams of coffee grounds, which is equivalent to eight cups of coffee. Other ingredients are plant fibers and a resin made of biopolymers.
The European Commission's Bioeconomy Knowledge Centre (BKC) was launched on 20 July 2017 in Brussels and is to function as a central knowledge hub regarding the topic of bioeconomy. It is an online platform that aims to provide knowledge and help users to identify the knowledge they really need, but also transforms these specific knowledge needs back to the knowledge producers, thereby making knowledge available to EU policymakers and stakeholders.
The Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability will become a new Integrative Research Centre at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The specific focus in research and teaching that has been envisioned will make this new centre unique: It will concentrate on renewable resources, biotechnology, and bioeconomy. For this, new interdisciplinary degree programs will be established, which will only be offered by TUM in Straubing and nowhere else in the country.
Our bodies, windows or plastic bottles – all of them are made up of different molecules. The big difference however: while the molecules in the human body or other living organisms are in constant exchange with their surroundings, artificially produced material is not. This in turn directly affects their ability to break down after being used.
Art history or biology? During his school days, Johannes Gescher couöd have chosen either one. Eventually though, the biology studies won out, and the young student moved from his birthplace of Fulda to the university town Freiburg. Once there he was captivated by the world of microorganisms almost immediately: “Even during my undergraduate degree, I saw that my future was in microbiology,” Gescher says today.
The vanadium-dependent nitrogenase is an enzyme that catalyses two important processes: On the one hand it converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia, on the other hand it reduces carbon monoxide (CO) to hydrocarbons. Today, both reactions are run on a big scale by chemical catalyses to produce ammonia and fuels for industry. In additon, ammonia is used as synthetic fertilizer to ensure the food production for at least half of the world’s population.