An enzyme found in the roots of soybeans could be the key to cars that run on air.

Vanadium nitrogenase, an enzyme that normally produces ammonia from nitrogen gas, can also convert carbon monoxide (CO), a common industrial byproduct, into propane, the blue-flamed gas found on stoves across America.

While scientists caution the research is still at an early stage, they say that this study could eventually lead to new, environmentally friendly ways to produce fuel — and eventually gasoline — from thin air.

“This organism is a very common soil bacteria that is very well understood and has been studied for a long time,” said Markus Ribbe, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, and a co-author of the new paper that appears in the journal Science.

“But while we were studying it, we realized that the enzyme has some unusual behavior,” he added.

The organism that the researchers studied was Azotobacter vinelandii, an economically important bacteria. A. vinelandii is usually found in the soil around the roots of nitrogen-fixing plants like soybeans.

Farmers like plants that contain A. vinelandii because the bacteria use a suite of enzymes to turn unusable atmospheric nitrogen into vital ammonia and other chemicals. Other plants can then take up those chemicals and use them to grow…

[continues at Discovery News]

“Let there be light!” is a phrase that Zurab Bedia from Georgia takes to a whole new level as he lights fluorescent lamps with just the touch of his hand.

“My brother was really into radio,” recalls Bedia. “During one of his radio sessions, he was electrocuted and died instantly. Forty days after his death, I had a vision – I wouldn’t call it a dream, it was really a vision – he told me to go and change a light bulb in the hallway. When I touched the bulb, it started blinking and kept blinking when I held it in my hand.”

An entire laboratory has been set up by Georgia’s top scientists to investigate the Zurab Bedia phenomenon. They have discovered that Bedia’s geomagnetic field is several times more intense than that of most humans.

However, scientists are not only intrigued by Bedia’s ability to light bulbs but, more importantly, the possible effect this could have on medicine and science.

“We’re interested in finding out how we can use these abilities for further research in various scientific fields,” said Nodar Giorgiadze, professor of chemistry at Georgian Technical University…

[continues at Staple News]

As nature’s own solar cells, plants convert sunlight into energy via photosynthesis. New details are emerging about how the process is able to exploit the strange behavior of quantum systems, which could lead to entirely novel approaches to capturing usable light from the sun.

All photosynthetic organisms use protein-based “antennas” in their cells to capture incoming light, convert it to energy and direct that energy to reaction centers — critical trigger molecules that release electrons and get the chemical conversion rolling. These antennas must strike a difficult balance: they must be broad enough to absorb as much sunlight as possible yet not grow so large that they impair their own ability to shuttle the energy on to the reaction centers.

This is where quantum mechanics becomes useful. Quantum systems can exist in a superposition, or mixture, of many different states at once. What’s more, these states can interfere with one another — adding constructively at some points, subtracting at others. If the energy going into the antennas could be broken into an elaborate superposition and made to interfere constructively with itself, it could be transported to the reaction center with nearly 100 percent efficiency.

Read More: Scientific American

Considering that nobody knows what’s going to happen in 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar functions as a tremendously intriguing meme upon which we can project our hopes and fears, dreams and desires. Hollywood has now offered up a massive collective shadow projection in the form of a $250 million disaster epic that takes the aesthetics of annihilation to a new pitch of perfection.  Paradoxically, this doom-riddled blockbuster could create a great opening to offer an alternative vision of what 2012 could be for our planet. Potentially, 2012 could represent the coming-to-consciousness of the human species, in which we take responsibility for our role as agents of conscious evolution.

A rising grassroots movement now realizes we can no longer expect governments, corporations, or any outside authority to create the beautiful world we long to live in. We have to do it ourselves. This growing network of Evolvers, Burners, Bioneers, Transition Towners, and others are developing new cooperative networks that can help heal our planet while providing sustainable solutions to the disastrously unsustainable economic and political systems that disempower people, keeping them asleep.

For this month’s Spore, over thirty cities will host conversations on 2012 and the evolution of consciousness, including “counter-screenings” to Sony Pictures’ 2012 world-catastrophe film.

Spores may preview a portion of Mangusta Productions upcoming feature-length documentary 2012: Time for Change, directed by Joao Amorim and starring 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl author Daniel Pinchbeck, along with a section of the disinformation documentary 2012: Science our Superstition, produced by Gary Baddeley.

In addition, current bestselling 2012 Story author John Major Jenkins will give a short video presentation for those participating in the Spores. Afterward, we will discuss indigenous prophecies and global transformation, and how to prepare ourselves and our communities for rapid changes to come.

We sincerely hope you can attend the upcoming Spore: Click here to find the Spore near you, or email jonathan [at] evolver [dot] net to start your own.

In 1998, the gears began turning to convert Jühnde, a tiny village in Saxony, Germany, into a bioenergy hub that receives every bit of its electricity (and most of its heat) from biomass. The system went live in 2005, and its subsequent success has turned Jühnde into a celebrity in green circles, as well as a model for other bioenergy-seeking towns and cities.

This image shows Jühnde’s unique bioenergy plant, with its two domed fermentation silos. The biogas plant has caught the attention of international communities and organizations such as Reynolds, Indiana—a.k.a. BioTown, USA.

There are lots of photos in addition to the one shown here; review them all at Discover Magazine.