Artificial ‘plants’ could fuel cars in future

The newlycreated fuel can be stored for months or years and distributed through existing energy infrastructure.
A group of scientists in the US have created artificial “plants” that will use sunlight to make gasoline and natural gas through synthetic photosynthesis.The products can be used by cars in future as fuel.
The research, conducted by Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California, was led by Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry at the same university.
Photosynthesis, a natural process, turns water and carbon dioxide into sugar, thus storing sun’s energy for plants. But these artificial plants will produce liquid fuels, instead of sugar. The fuels can be stored for months or years and distributed through existing energy infrastructure.
Researchers have also created an artificial leaf that produces methane, the primary component of natural gas, using a combination of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria. Their first system employs long nanoscale filaments–nanowires–to turn sunlight into electrons, which bacteria use to convert carbon dioxide and water into complex chemicals. In the second system, nanowires generate electricity that splits water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen. Bacteria then combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to form methane, the largestcomponent of natural gas.
“We’re good at generating electrons from light efficiently, but chemical synthesis always limited our systems in the past. One purpose of this experiment was to show we could integrate bacterial catalysts with semiconductor technology. This lets us understand and optimise a truly synthetic photosynthesis system,” said Yang.
Burning of fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide faster than the natural photosynthesis that can absorb it.This system will pull every carbon that is burnt and convert it into a fuel that is truly carbon neutral, as explained by Thomas Moore, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University, US. The researchers now hope to create a morerobust and efficient synthetic process than the natural one.
Yang, however, said that this system will give researchers new tools to study photosynthesis and learn its secrets.

UN IN 21ST CENTURY: DO WE NEED A MONOLITHIC INSTITUTION?

As the post-Cold War euphoria faded, the future of the United Nations became clouded by widespread scepticism and disillusionment about its roles and capabilities. Moreover, the world organization is crippled by heavy debts and entrenched bureaucracies. Nonetheless, pessimism about the United Nations should not limit its possibilities for the future.

Thus, we are confronted by fundamental questions at this juncture. Do we need, and want, the United Nations? Can the United Nations address the challenges of a world which is so different from that of 1945? Can it answer evolving peace and security demands and sub and transstate challenges, which are increasingly apparent? Can an organization which was established on the basis of relations between stable states adapt to issues and problems which do not conform to this paradigm?
States and the Evolving Nature of Sovereignty
Much effort is expended in questioning whether an international system based on sovereign states will be durable in the future. As various aspects of world affairs continue to be globalized, the state system seems to be increasingly incapable of addressing certain issues and problems.
In both developing and developed regions, ethnic minorities continue to challenge the legitimacy of national governments. The conventional concept of the state does not seem to provide a solution for ethnic and irredentist conflicts. The relationship between nation and state needs critical enquiry.
Another key question concerns the state's capability to govern. The most pressing issue concerns weak
and failed states.
In the face of growing internal violence, ethnic strife and human rights violations, it is essential to reassess sovereignty as the basic ordering principle of the international system from both an empirical and a normative standpoint. Empirically, one could question the extent to which the invocation of sovereignty was used to prevent international action in the face of massive human rights violation.
Normatively, it would have to be debated whether sovereignty entails not only states' rights but also the obligation to provide for the security and wellbeing of citizens. The principle of sovereignty should not prevent the international community from responding to severe human suffering.
Global Citizenship

Global citizenship focuses on the future of NGOs, the media and voluntary associations within global civil society. In a world of states and regardless of their wishes the global community of people has been steadily expanding and will continue to do so in the context of a global ethos. Within the UN system, non-governmental actors have played an increasingly prominent role in various areas, ranging from humanitarian assistance and human rights to the environment.
As the activities of NGOs have become more visible and important their international networks have also been growing. Yet the NGO community is far from monolithic. As a group, NGOs are immensely diverse, and their networks vary from issue to issue. One of the most pressing tasks is to investigate the nature of their networks and grasp their role and capacity as a pre-requisite for understanding the relationship between NGOs and the United Nations and its Member States.
Market Forces
As the globalization and liberalization of economic activity continue to increase in pace, the role of the private sector in international affairs will expand accordingly. Although the Bretton Woods institutions are part of the UN system, they have not fully developed a symbiotic relationship with UN development agencies.
Multinational corporations have long been a primary driving force behind the accelerating trend of economic globalization. For large international companies, geography and state boundaries are no longer significant obstacles to their activities. With the advent of a truly global market place, particularly in international finance, big businesses are becoming ever more globalized and powerful.
This creates implications for the economic sovereignty of governments, especially in small states.
Moreover, multinational firms are advancing global interests which have also created tensions with local, national and regional business concerns. This is also true for political actors, including local and national governments. In this context, multilateral companies have emerged as important actors in the international political process in various fields, particularly trade, investment and the environment.
Regional Arrangements
Regionalism lies between statecentred multilateralism and globalism. For various reasons, regionalism has been promoted in different areas. Yet, although attempts have been made to develop regional organizations in many areas, only a few have produced desirable results. One central question concerns the compatibility of regionalism with national interests and global interests. As a halfway house between the state system and global society, regionalism has both promise and
limitations. The UN SecretaryGeneral has repeatedly called on regional organizations to share responsibility with the United Nations in a division of labour in regional conflicts and peace keeping operations. However, regional institutions have often proved incapable of living up to his expectation because of their lack of resources and intra-regional politics.
International Organizations
If the structure of the UN system is unacceptable, what can be done to reform it? In particular, what kind of change is required to promote the United Nations as actor, arena and policy tool? The structure of the UN system was configured during the last days of World War II. Since then, the world has undergone tremendous change, while the basic structure of the world organization has remained largely intact. Clearly, the UN structure does not reflect today's international political
realities, which accounts for its inability to mobilize resources effectively. Restructuring the United Nations, including an amendment of its Charter, is imperative if the organization wishes to remain a relevant actor in world politics in the twentyfirst century.
Security Council: A case of flawed composition and representation or something
more?
The Security Council is arguably the foremost committee within the UN when addressing crisis management and important security issues. This is bolstered by the powers invested in it, making its resolutions binding upon those required, ensuring complete compliance other than in cases where nations turn rogue and disregard the rules imposed. Even in such cases, the powers bestowed upon the council through chapters VI and VII of the charter ensure that stringent countermeasures can be enacted with a great degree of immediacy. However it is perhaps the most prominent body to be at the receiving end of scathing criticism, considering the stark polarity in its composition and the ambiguities in its mandate. Debate regarding the first aspect of criticism is singularly centred on the veto power.
If the Security Council is to succeed as an organisation, it will have to do better to define and enforce a mandate regarding intervention, peacekeeping and use of veto in crisis situations. Proponents of a democratised UNSC have suggested doing away with the veto altogether instead of complicating the decision making process by offering more permanent seats, but the recondite article-108 is an obstruction to such endeavours. The article in lay terms suggest that a veto power may veto a resolution to get rid of the veto itself, a clever selfpreserving peace of legalese which acts as a shield for wanton selfinterest, which is unfortunately propagated using the security council as a shield.

Indian scientists decode Tulsi plant genome

The Tulsi, a small green plant with blue flowers, it is a pillar of the Traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India.

The plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their antibacterial,antifungal,antipyretic and anticancer properties.

Indian scientists have deciphered the entire genetic makeup of Tulsi, a herb widely used for therapeutic purposes. The genome map will help in making new medicines using the plant.
A multi-institutional team led by Sowdhamini Ramanathan from the National Centre of Biological Science, Bengaluru revisited the ageold knowledge of the plant and its medicinal effects in their laboratories.
The plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their antibacterial,antifungal,antipyreticand anticancer properties.
These compounds are metabolites, compounds that are a byproduct of plant metabolism, typically used for plant selfdefence.
These metabolites are very poorly understood because of lack of genomic information.
Sowdhamini and team have produced the first draft genome of O. tenuiflorum Krishna subtype, which is an important step in understanding and identifying the genes responsible for production of metabolites with medicinal properties.
“The sequence reveals the interesting pathways used by Tulsi to make ursolic acid, a medically important compound. If one could now use modern synthetic biology techniques to synthesise ursolic acid, it would be of great benefit,” said S. Ramaswamy, one of the researchers. 

“This is the first report of draft genome sequencing of a plant species from NCBS and we hope to do more,” added Sowdhamini.

WHO urges action against antibiotic resistance

Experts warn that without effective medicines, infections such as hospital acquired ventilator associated pneumonias, urinary tract infections and diarrhoea are becoming difficult to treat Cautioning against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and other drugs which leads to resistance to medicines and treatment failure, the World Health Organization has urged member countries in Southeast Asia to address this public health threat urgently.
"Immediate action is needed to stop the world from heading towards pre-antibiotic era in which all achievements made in prevention and control of communicable diseases will be reversed. Common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades may once again kill millions.
Resistance to antibiotics will make complex surgeries and management of several chronic illnesses like cancer, extremely difficult," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO Southeast Asia Region, said at a regional meeting in Dili, the capital of TimorLeste.
Without effective antimicrobial medicines, a number of common infections such as hospitalacquired ventilator associated
pneumonias, urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, gonorrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria are becoming harder to treat, she added. Khetrapal Singh was addressing health ministers and senior health ministry officials from 11 member countries of WHO Southeast Asia Region, at the sixtyeighth annual meeting of the Regional Committee.
According to estimates released by the British government in December 2014, antibiotic resistance will be responsible for 10 million deaths annually by 2050. Its economic cost will result in a 2 to 3.5 per cent decrease in global gross domestic product by the same year if antimicrobial resistance goes unchecked. Reduced productivity from persisting illness, and its cost of treatment, will add to the economic loss.
Khetrapal Singh said comprehensive and integrated national action plans are needed to respond to antimicrobial resistance. Countries need to strengthen monitoring of the extent and cause of antibiotic resistance, improve infection control in hospitals and regulate and promote appropriate use of medicines.
She urged that WHO Southeast Asia regional strategy, the Jaipur Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2011, and the recent Global Action Plan need to be implemented in totality, keeping in mind national priorities and context.
Antibiotic resistance is growing due to injudicious use of antibiotics by prescribers, patients not completing full treatment courses, overuse of antibiotics in livestock and fish farming, poor control of infections in healthcare settings and poor hygiene. There are only a few new antibiotics available to replace the resistant and ineffective ones.

Nuclear energy set to grow at 45 per cent in next 20 years

Demand for nuclear energy has, however, declined after the Fukushima disaster of 2011 Global nuclear generation capacity is set to grow from 379 GWe to 552 GWe by 2035, says a new report. This means that global nuclear power generation capacity would grow by more than 45 per cent over next 20 years.
Titled World Nuclear Association Nuclear Fuel Report, the new release suggests that in both established and potential markets, nuclear power faces an increased competitive challenge from other modes of generation.
According to the report that was published by international organisation World Nuclear Association, nuclear power currently contributes about 11 per cent of world electricity supply. The International Energy Agency has projected that the contribution would grow steadily in the next 20 years. But it also mentions that the demand for nuclear energy has declined after the Fukushima disaster of 2011.
Meanwhile, since world known resources of uranium, a prerequisite for production of nuclear power, are more than adequate to satisfy reactor requirements to well beyond 2035, its production has stopped rising. But the prospects for new reactors continue to be strong in China, India and Korea as well as in a number of countries in the European Union and the Middle East. This might result in the need for additional mined uranium.
Another factor that hampers growth is that excess global enrichment capacity has resulted in delay of some new projects until after 2020 and the use of existing capacity for underfeeding.
Calling for greater recognition of the role of nuclear generation, a previous statment by World Nuclear Association has said that the governments must take action to ensure that the lights will stay on decades into the future and policies are needed to steer us to an environmentally sound energy mix.
While losses from disasters like Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disaster are still engraved in memories of many, it will be interesting to see nuclear energy’s growth trajectory in coming years.

China syndrome: fracked oil and Saudi Arabia's big gamble hit sinking global economy

For anyone who believes in the ineffable wisdom of 'free' markets, the current sinkaway oil price takes some explaining, writes James Meadway. Saudi Arabia's big gamble that it could put US shale oil out of business by over-pumping has now collided with China's falling demand for energy. Result: oil producers everywhere are swimming in red ink. Where will it all end?

"OPEC producers are hoping to deter future investors from US shale - and indeed other high-cost alternative sources, like Canadian tar sands and Arctic drilling. But now OPEC's costly gamble may be falling foul of a slowing global economy".

The 'fracking revolution' has transformed the economics of oil production globally, with the US becoming a bigger producer than Saudi Arabia and - after decades of dependency on oil imports - even being able to export some of its surplus production.

US shale oil is unusual, too, in being privately owned: most of the world's oil reserves (over 70%) are in state hands. Like the North Sea 30 years ago, in a world dominated by state-owned companies and publicly owned reserves, US shale could look like a new frontier for private operators on the search for fat profits.

New technology, high oil prices, and plentiful cheap credit have encouraged the boom. Some $200bn has been borrowed to invest in fracking in the last few years, accounting for 15% of the entire $1.3tr US junk bond market. Investors were, in effect, betting on continuing high oil prices making their investments profitable for years to come.



Last year's slump in prices trashed that calculation. From a mid-year high of $115 per barrel, by the end of 2014 the price per barrel had fallen by more than 40%. More than half of US shale rigs have been laid up since October.

The driver, last year, was the behaviour of OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC is a cartel agreement among major oil producers that seeks to manage the international market for oil. With oil prices already plunging over the summer, OPEC could be expected to ease off on production.

Running against the logic of the market

Restricting supplies should, thanks to the magic of the market, produce a decent increase in the sale price of oil. Instead, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead, OPEC decided to continue production levels. No agreement on restricting output could be reached. Prices slumped.

The economics of oil production are simple - crude, even. The upfront investment needed to sink a new well is significant. After that point, however, the variable costs - including pay - are a minimal part of the expenditure. That's the case even when, as in Norway, oil workers' average annual wages are $179,000.

These high initial costs, relative to lower running costs, mean that once a well is drilled the owner has a huge incentive to keep on drilling - even at very low prices. If they can cover their immediate costs, which are low relative to the initial outlay, they can make a profit in the short run.

But that creates a ratchet effect: once a well is drilled, only a spectacular fall in the price of oil will stop oil from being pumped. The more oil is pumped, however, the lower the price is likely to fall. Each producer, in this scenario, is trapped into producing more and more, driving down the price further and further.

This effect has meant the slowdown in US shale output has been far slower than might have been expected, given the dramatic decline in price.

It's only with a cartel, like OPEC, that this ratchet can be broken. Because it is formed by states, rather than private producers, OPEC can afford to run against the logic of the market. In the case of Saudi Arabia, with cash reserves of around $800bn, it can afford to run against the market logic for a very long time.

OPEC seeks to maximise revenues for its members. Generally, that means all members agreeing to restrict supplies, and then holding to their agreement. Instead, confronted with falling oil prices, OPEC has worked to increase its supplies, apparently working directly against its own interests.

Non-OPEC producers feel the squeeze - especially the US

Disentangling motivations from the conflicting claims is unclear. But the net effect of this drive to expand was to plunge major non-OPEC producers into serious crises.

Late last year, attention was focused on Russia. The Russian Government is dependent on oil and gas revenues for about half its income, a dependency it shares with other large oil and gas exporters. This means that any decline in oil and gas prices immediately squeezes government revenues, alongside its wider economic impact.

However, the Russian Government also has deep pockets, having built up reserves estimated at around $400bn during the boom years of the 2000s. The plummeting oil price was expensive, but not disastrous if prices stabilised - as, eventually, they did, in early 2015.

The major victim of the price plunge was not Russia, but the US fracking industry. The critical number in all this is the 'break-even' price of oil. This is the oil price at which any given well starts to turn a profit.

For US fracking, that's $70-77 a barrel. At current oil prices, US frackers are staring at heavy losses. Conventional oil is far cheaper, with the break-even price in the Middle East running at $10-17 a barrel.

But since many oil-producing countries are financing themselves on the back of oil sales, imposing taxes to fund state expenditures, the true break-even price (including the cost of paying for the government) for most major producers is far higher.

Deterring investment in high cost oil production

For Saudi Arabia, the 'fiscal' break-even price (including payments needed to keep the government afloat) is around $92 per barrel. For other OPEC producers, it can be far higher - $116 per barrel in Iraq, for instance.

So low prices impose a significant loss on these states. But since they are states, rather than heavily indebted private producers, they should (in theory) be able to bear the losses. Even with reserves on the scale of Saudi Arabia's, it is a high-risk strategy: something like a game of chicken, with OPEC relying on US shale's shaky financing to lead to its collapse.

It may be working: major US shale operators, drowning in debt, are suspending dividend payments to shareholders in a bid to conserve their cash.

The strategy seems clear. By using its market power to squash oil prices now, OPEC producers can hope to deter future investors from US shale - and indeed other high-cost alternative sources, like Canadian tar sands and Arctic drilling. In doing so, they can continue to claim a major share of the market, and maintain their own dominant position.

That, at least, was the situation at the end of last year and into this year. And with US shale reeling, output dropping over the year, OPEC has hinted at future tightening of production, leading to a rising oil price once more.

But events in China point to difficulties ahead. 'Black Monday' saw China's stock market boom come crashing to a halt, with share prices falling through the floor despite heavy-handed government intervention - including a pledge of $485bn to buy shares.

China's markets may now look calmer, but the bursting bubble has made clear that the country's extraordinary, decades-long transformation into an economic superpower is now winding down.

China's seemingly insatiable demand for raw materials, including oil, is easing off. And as it eases off, the oil price has started to look shaky once more. OPEC's costly gamble may now be falling foul of a slowing global economy.

  Oil Refinery at Oxymoron'. Artwork by Wyatt Wellman via Flickr (CC BY-SA).

 

Centre approves national policy on offshore wind energy

Government hopes to repeat the success of onshore wind power development that happened in 1990s
The Union Cabinet has approved the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy to boost renewable energy development in the country.
The consent given by the Cabinet that was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi includes settingup of offshore wind power projects and research and development activities in waters (in or adjacent to the country) up to the seaward distance of 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometres) or the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country from the base line.
As per the statement released by Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) has been authorised as nodal ministry for use of offshore areas within the EEZ of the country. Similarly, National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has been authorised as the agency for development of offshore wind energy in the country. It will carry out allocation of offshore wind energy blocks, coordination and allied functions with related ministries and agencies.
Preliminary assessments along the 7,600 kilometre long Indian coastline have indicated prospects of development of offshore wind power. With the introduction of the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy, the Centre is attempting to replicate the success of the onshore wind power development.
Time to replicate past success
In the early 1990s, MNRE had taken up onshore demonstration projects in various states. A total of 71 megawatt (MW) of demonstration projects in seven states had attracted interest. Since then, India has achieved significant success in the onshore wind power development, with over 23 gigawatt (GW) of wind energy capacity already installed and generating power. Worldwide, offshore wind power projects with total capacity of 7.5 GW have been installed. UK is leading with installations of 4.2 GW.
Going by the success of onshore wind energy development, the government expects a similar result in offshore wind energy development too.