My First Current Event= The Epic Panda Poop!!!

Website- http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/09/an-energy-lesson-from-panda-poop/

Posted By- Ajda Mozetic

By Stephen Ornes September 14, 2011 

 Hey guys, and welcome to my 1 current event blog post in 7th grade! This is going to be exiting because I am going to teach you about something really interesting. Something called.....wait for it........................PANDA POOP!!! We all thought its just normal panda poop but actually its much more then that! So read on and learn about panda poop! Enjoy! :)

What do you think of when you think of a panda? A cute black and white bear from China who eats bamboo? Scientists from Mississippi State University are interested in more than just that; they are interested in what comes out of them: Their poop. Ashli Brown is a biochemist at the university and she predicts that panda poop might lead us to a new way of turning grasses into fuel. Plants such as grass absorb energy from the sunshine and scientists like Ashli are trying to use that absorbing energy. At a meeting Ms. Brown presented her research showing how panda poop could inspire a new way to gain energy form plants! Plants are a renewable energy source which means that we can produce more of it. When we use plants as an energy source that is called biomass. Most of the energies that we use come from nonrenewable resources called fossil fuels which are very bad for the environment. Fossil fuels include oil, coal and natural gasses. They come from fossils- which are the remains of organisms that lived long ago. They are nonrenewable because once they are gone we can’t produce more of them.  Burning biomass is one way to capture energy but scientists are struggling to find another way. Brown thinks and hopes that panda waste can teach scientists something about breaking down biomass. The microbes in the panda’s stomach are very good for sucking the energy out of bamboo- their food. Unlike cows who have 4 chambers to digest large amount of food pandas have only one.  Once the panda eats the bamboo ti goes into the stomach and then what is not needed is excreted. Brown says that she wants to use poop to break down another kind: biomass. Now the scientists are taking the next step and figuring out how the microbes work. Brown’s team is hoping to identify the chemicals that help with the process of breaking down biomass. If those chemicals can be made in the laboratory, they could be used to convert biomass like grass or other plants into fuel.  So, as you can see there is a lot more in simple panda poop.  In my opinion panda poop can lead us into the…………….FUTURE!!!