Systems and Synthetic Biology for Sustainable Energy

Catalog description

The world today is in a state of enormous transition. In the coming few decades, billions of people will leave poverty and enter the developed world. This unprecedented development will be one of the greatest opportunities ever presented to improve global public health and quality of life, but it will only be realized if it's done right. The challenge of sustainable energy is not just to provide energy without polluting the atmosphere with fossil carbon, but to do so at a global scale at a cost that everyone can afford. Thanks to capabilities ranging from room temperature and pressure catalysis to self-assembly, biology offers first draft solutions to problems in sustainable energy from the safe use of nuclear energy, the capture and storage of solar power, mining and purifying elements critical for sustainable energy technologies like rare earths and even in the construction of advanced materials. In each class we will discuss a set of scientific journal articles and use these discuss the advantages, disadvantages and potential of biology in applications in sustainable energy. Inthe past, we have used these discussions to write a scientific article with students as co-authors.