Cumbers:notes

Outline of MIT syn bio tea talk
1) Applications of syn bio to space

Diatoms
Research Article The Genome of the Diatom Thalassiosira Pseudonana: Ecology, Evolution, and Metabolism

Fuels for space

 * Notes from speaking to David Thompson
 * Oxygen - O2 as byproduct of photosynthesis
 * Hydrogen - via the biohydrogen route

, as a normal part of its function it produces H2 albeit at a much slower rate than NH3, its a side reaction. but if you force the reaction in an atmosphere with zero nitrogen, then you get H2 production exclusively. (Hydrogen-2, H-2, 2H (a.k.a. Deuterium), an isotope of Hydrogen (1 proton, 1 neutron, 1 electron))
 * nitrogenase, the enzyme that fixes N2 to NH3(amonia)ozene

Hydrizine
http://www.anammox.com/ is a resource for research on those particular bacteria.
 * Deep sea bacteria that make hydrazine as a free metabolic intermediate. (Hydrazine is used as a bipropellant in combination with O2 I (DT) believe,and some of its derivatives are used in combination with other liquid rocket fuels...)

Guanidine
A strongly alkaline crystalline compound, NHC(NH2)2, formed by the oxidation of guanine and found in the urine as a normal product of protein metabolism. It is commonly used in the organic synthesis of plastics, resins, and explosives. (answers.com) Guanine production was hypothetical, it would involve tweaking the purine biosynthetic pathway, and i think i mentioned a purine efflux pump... http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=181001

making TAL for TATB production was from this paper http://www.chemeng.uiuc.edu/~zhaogrp/images/HZ24-JACS%20Fas-B%20Engineering%202004.pdf

phloroglucinol: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/jacsat/2005/127/i15/pdf/ja042340g.pdf

ammonia, formaldehyde --> hexamine (fireproofing, plastics) --> hexogen/RDX

toluene, sulfuric acid, nitric acid --> trinitrotoluene

acetone, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide --> acetone Peroxide/TATP

guanine --> nitroguanidine

malonyl-CoA --> triacetic acid lactone --> LCD's

side product is phloroglucinol (can make adhesives)

ammonia, formaldehyde

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