Month: March 2023

Algae communication, conspecific and interspecific: the concepts of phycosphere and algal-bacteria consortia in a photobioreactor (PBR)

/ Yogi Hale Hendlin

How does the race to make algae do tasks for us undermine the ability of those algae to perform their metabolic tasks?

My colleagues and I have a new article out looking at the limits of enclosed ecosystems (lab controlled algae breeding for energy/food/oil, etc). Algae live in consortia and need communities of different organisms to flourish.

How can we design our bioreactors to be more interspecies ecosystems rather than sterile systems, in order to reduce the energy use and inputs for algal photobioreactor (PBR) systems?

Our article discusses this exciting new frontier.

Sergio Mugnai, Natalia Derossi & Yogi Hendlin (2023) Algae communication, conspecific and interspecific: the concepts of phycosphere and algal-bacteria consortia in a photobioreactor (PBR), Plant Signaling & Behavior, 18:1, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15592324.2022.2148371

Photo by Lany-Jade Mondou

Radio EcoShock episode Coping in the Polycrisis: Homer-Dixon and Hendlin

/ Yogi Hale Hendlin

Coping in the Polycrisis: Homer-Dixon and Hendlin March 15, 2023 – Systems & security expert Thomas Homer-Dixon: situation update and battered hope. From Rotterdam, Dr. Yogi Hendlin, exploring the brains of fossil fuel lovers, as the house is on fire. Homer-Dixon is author of “The Upside of Down” and “The Ingenuity Gap”, Director of the Cascades Institute. He says these times of concurrent crises are the new normal. The future will be even stranger. Two bright minds in difficult times, with tools to cope. Thomas Homer-Dixon and Dr. Yogi Hendlin coming right at you, on Radio Ecoshock this week. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)