Biology Article review

Biology Article review

Title: Feeding and Fuelling the Future

Source: Australasian Science, 32. 10 (Dec 2011): 20-22. Control Publications Pty Ltd.

Author: Thomas Faunce

Institution of Author: Prof Thomas Faunce is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Australian National University.

Statement

This article is a commentary over the nanotechnology and synthetic biology which may help to re-engineer the photosynthesis, in order to solve various problems of human society.

Summary

The article has given a detail account on the benefits, challenges and limitations of nanotechnology for the artificial photosynthesis. It talks about the benefits artificial photosynthesis may provide in terms of local and cheap source of hydrogen fuel, carbon dioxide absorption, and oxygen and soil nutrients. It gives brief account on the opportunities nanotechnology and synthetic biology may offer for important improvements in order to overcome the restrictions of natural photosynthesis which include requirements to co-locate the important constituents of light capture, carbon dioxide reduction and water splitting. It also includes the need to set the flow of electron adjacent to oxygen because of its toxic nature and that is why regeneration of broken photosynthetic proteins will be required. Further challenges it will face are considerable loss of water due to transpiration while CO2 uptake along with the emission of great amount of heat to support the survival of organism. The article has also elaborated the main functions of artificial photosynthesis: cheap and localized utilization of sun-light in order to split water for hydrogen cell production for fuel cells. The author has given example of different majors taken by nations to redesign the natural photosynthetic components. On the other hand it also talks about the challenges and constraints this project may face from different channels. For example the excessive patenting will stifle this innovation rather than encouraging it. With this challenge the author has given ...