Informational Reading: Fun not Included

Vaičekonytė, R., E. Kiviat, F. Nsenga, and A. Ostfeld. "An Exploration of Common Reed (Phragmites Australis)." Mires and Pea 13 (2014): 1-9. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

Everybody likes to do casual reading, me included. Nowadays, my reading is mostly complicated papers using words I swear came from the SAT vocabulary section. My most recent reading project was a paper on the bioenergy potential of common reed (Phragmites australis) in North America.

My primary goal for reading this paper was to learn about the place of Phragmites australis in the bioenergy industry. To acomplish this goal, I focused on the summary, introduction, and discussion because they contained various informative details that would not have been found in the methods or results section of the article.

I knew a handful of the words that were used in the paper, such as Biomass, Feedstock, Net Primary Productivity, Bioenergy, Biofuel, Cellulose, Rhizome Segments. On the contrary, I did not know the words Lignocellulose, Old World Haplotype M, Opined, Culms, Capitalisation, Photosynthetic Efficiency, Forb, Leguminous Vine, Vegetative Propagules, Native Biota, Reed Genets.

The major parts of information from the article can be summed up as the following points:

• Phragmites has been spreading rapidly, which reduces biodiversity, and summarily prompted action to be taken towards it’s removal.
• Utilizing Phragmites might put economic pressure into expanding its population, summarily decreasing biodiversity at various locations.
• There is a potential correlation between the traits that make a plant a good bioenergy crop and the traits that make a plant highly invasive.
• The major conflict with utilizing reed as a biomass crop is the evident problem with increasing biodiversity, but reducing biomass production, and vice versa.
• The levels of heavy metals and major elements in reed depend on the geochemical environment, pollution of the water and soil in which the reeds grew, and the season.
• Reeds are known to accumulate contaminants including selenium, mercury, copper, zinc, cadmium, chromium, iron, and lead.

All in all, low concentration of fun, high concentration of interesting; quite the useful article.

Getting to Know the Predecessors of Biofuels

Over the years, research has been done by groups of scientists and engineers into the viability of biofuels, but the origin of the biofuel is a long and mechanical one.

•  Samuel Morey
• Career Path: Mechanics and Chemistry
•  Research Philosophy: Positivism
• Significant Invention: The First Internal Combustion Engine
• Relation to Interest: Morey’s engine ran on a combination of alcohol and turpentine; a precursor to later ethanol fuels.
• Legacy: While Samuel Morey never got the spotlight he hoped for, he stands out for having made a biofuel long before the term even existed.
•  Nikolaus Otto
• Career Path: Engineer
•  Research Philosophy: Positivism
• Significant Invention: The First Commercially Practical Four-Stroke Internal Combustion Engine
• Relation to Interest: The Otto engine utilized the easily obtainable and untaxed alcohol used in spirit lamps in Europe, making the engine run near purely on ethanol.
• Legacy: Nikolaus Otto developed an engine that could run on ethanol. In modern times, that would have been incredible if it was able to compete with other engines and still use this combination of materials.
• Henry Ford
• Career Path: Machinist
• Research Philosophy: Positivism
• Significant Invention: The Ford Model T Automobile
• Relation to Interest: The Model T was developed as the first flexible fuel automobile, as it could run on many different substances, including ethanol.
• Legacy: Henry Ford built for the sake of building, and his flexible fuel automobile was ahead of its time. He would have loved to know that he was ahead of the race for alternative fuels

The modern biofuel is a complex problem, with plenty of cracks for scientists to peer into and determine where they can improve.

No Hypotheses without Questions

 No scientist could follow the scientific method if they didn't know how to ask questions! That's one of the most vital parts! I have a heap of questions of my own that I will hopefully get an answer to one day!

1. How long does it take to make bio-ethanol?
2. What is the smallest viable quantity of bio-ethanol that can be produced?
3. What do I need to make a bio-ethanol still?
4. How long would it take to make a bio-ethanol still?
5. Does cellulosic feedstock have any significant difference from corn feedstock?
6. What precautions are taken in bio-ethanol production?
7. How do scientists take chemical analyses?
8. How formal is a lab notebook supposed to be?
9. Is it better to research independently or in a group?
10. Why does bio-ethanol turn into moonshine if the process is imperfect?
11. How small does something need to be grinded to become cellulosic feedstock?
12. How much is too much information?
13. How long does an experiment usually last?
14. Is a lab needed to make a good experiment?
15. How much of an experiment should be original?
16. How do you know if your experiment is actually good?
17. What if the experiment turns up nothing?
18. Does an experiment need to be repeated to confirm it's validity?
19. Can an experiment be altered based on newly revealed knowledge?
20. What kind of safety equipment is recommended for chemicals?
21. What kind of dangers are associated with chemicals?
22. How hard is an air analysis?
23. Can you swap high tech equipment for homemade or lower quality equipment?
24. Should an experiment with any form of danger associated with it be conducted alone?
25. How much of a process should be understandable to exceed at it?
26. When should an experiment be considered to be going nowhere?
27. How can you tell if your experiment is making zero progress?
28. Is a material best obtained in it's naturally occurring environment?
29. How does a soil analysis get completed?
30. How is concentration of a substance determined?
31. How often should you check up on your experiment?
32. Do you include redundant data as filler for a lab notebook or report?
33. Should you cut corners if you're running low on time?
34. What is acceptable in terms of cutting corners?
35. How do you choose your test material to ensure originality?
36. Is originality the aim if there is very little difference from a past experiment?
37. Is checking the validity of an experiment a worthy goal?
38. Is research experience better than lab experience?
39. When does it become apparent that high tech equipment is needed?
40. Should an experiment involving naturally occurring materials use lab produced versions on the side?
41. Is a control group always necessary?
42. How many different batches of test groups should be used?
43. How do you preserve a control group without snuffing it out?
44. How do you isolate a test group without ruining it?
45. What is considered a valid test group that is sufficiently different than the control group?
46. Does a sample need to be preserved from each group?
47. Should there always be another batch at the ready?
48. What is the chance of a batch being faulty?
49. What is the effect of a batch being faulty?
50. Why does a research question have to be so much more than just a question?

 I thought I had a lot of questions, but this is just nuts! I figure that by the end of my research, at least 30 of these 50 questions will be answered. No matter! There is only one truly important question that must be answered, and that is my research question!

Organized Chaos, a Praise to the Beauty of the Lab Notebook

 As a student with hopes and dreams of research, I am required to make a lab notebook. Now, I'm not exactly in a lab just yet, so for an example of a good lab notebook, I just used google images to get a random example.

 In this picture, you will see an illustrated jumble of information. To any experienced researcher, they will note the words used with the illustrations detail the exact occurrences and processes that went into their experiment. This is shown by the labeling of vital components and words that describe the thoughts of the writer.

 I can certainly take a few tips from this lab notebook, as I am new to the idea of actually having a lab notebook. One such lesson is how chaotic things may actually be in the notebook. I always pictured in my mind, that a lab notebook was supposed to be super neat and orderly, but here you can see that is definitely not true. In fact, this is easier to read than any of my textbooks!

 It just makes me feel more confident in the fact that I don't need to be unnecessarily neat to be very well organized. My head is like a massive debate, with tons of thoughts flying all over the place, so to have the freedom that comes with seeing this notebook, I am sure that I can succeed.