Better than compost

The good news is that one hour in the lab will yield the answers you need 😊

Even more exciting, the same methods help you assess the quality of hard carbon, opening up a world of possibilities for 21st century products and materials.

Chemistry + Biology provides the best resource efficiency.

Permanence. A critical parameter when it comes to soil carbon preservation projects.

A couple of years ago someone asked me how long it takes to estimate soil carbon permanence. They assumed that you would need multi-year trials at significant expense.

My favourite agronomic trials that test soil amendments standardise for nitrogen. Even better, standardise for available nitrogen.

Too many studies have conclusions clouded by simple fertilisation effects.

But seeing as the full suite of inter-molecular interactions occur (complex H-bonding, pi-stacking, charge interactions, transient ether bonds, metal complexation etc etc) it's clear to see why this 'molecule' has not been resolved. (not a molecule, a material!)

And arguments around molecular size remind me of the humus debate! If humus was easy to characterize as a polymer or a macromolecule then there wouldn't be so much argument.

And yes, to be an enzyme, catalysis needs to be facilitated. But do siderophores fit here? depending on how they are used by the organism?? Fun to contemplate things that don't fit in neat boxes anyhow.

Reading a materials science paper (non-biologists) and they just referred to pyoverdine as an 'enzyme'. I know not all enzymes are proteins but don't they at least have to be macromolecules? What term is best to use when referring to these interesting medium-sized molecules?

It follows that this one indicator is insufficient to rank different compost batches. If you know the history of inputs and process controls it’s a great indicator but can also hide some issues (lack of complete maturation). Most of the standard indicators have this problem, so you need multiple.

Assessing compost quality becomes difficult when you recognise that most of the indicators do not have a linear relationship across the full range of possibilities. A simple example is C:N. An ideal compost should have a C:N that is low, but also not too low.

Unusual red rocks in Australia are rewriting the rules on exceptional fossil sites Highly detailed fossils are typically found in shale or other fine-grained sedimentary rocks. These ones? They’re made of iron.

More fascinating insights on iron formations:
(this time with fossils!)
theconversation.com/unusual-red-...

There is much to be gained by remembering their huge head start, evolutionarily speaking. If you try and take the perspective of the microbe then you start to appreciate the metabolic diversity and why they have extensive genomes that produce a very useful array of chemistry.

This is a useful generalization (not an absolute), BUT the downside is that it casts microbial degraders in the service of plants or higher organisms. As if they are more like hardy automatons that exist solely to clean up the excess.

I was recently re-reviewing a piece supposedly on soil advocacy (from a non-scientist). As per usual, microbes got the obligatory mention as degraders. But first they found it necessary to mention that all chemical energy on our Earth comes via the sun via photosynthesis.

Why is this important? The diversity of microbial metabolism (even in everyday environments) deserves more credit.

One part I paid attention to was the time gap between a banded iron formation in Sudan and the oxygenation of our atmosphere, a gap of 300 MILLION years!

Yet another episode from @markowenmartin.bsky.social that I want to listen to multiple times 😊

There is so much rich and fascinating info, that is also broadly applicable to many important matters.

We still know so little about how bacterial metabolism really works.

Perhaps oddly, the announcement of the Nobel prize on MOFs prompted me to think of all the wonderful ways microbes have learnt to harness materials to their advantage.

The other day I referred to a high functioning compost pile as an ‘extreme environment’. 70 deg C might not sound extreme to folks in other fields but then you consider the amount of oxidation that is also occurring. It’s a wonder that species (and many) not only survive this but absolutely thrive.

Fun fact for the day: angiosperm (flowering plants) and fungal diversity both increased after the Permian-Triassic boundary, as evidenced by coal analysis.
Dai et al 2020 is a great review in this area, telling a story across the ages.
🌴🍄

My days are currently filled with chatgpt praising my thoughtful questions. It's nice to have a friend.

😂

In all seriousness though, why is chatgpt so bad at citations? eg. 'Smith et al says X' (link provided is Jones et al, who may or may not say X)

Other preferred tool for trawling sci?

Stuck record time, but I feel compelled to repeat this anytime I hear evidence of a lack of appreciation of C:N

Don’t compost food scraps without thinking about your carbon source.

It’s an exciting time at the intersection of physical chemistry and organic chemistry, introducing circularity into the energy transition.

I’ve seen plenty of investment news pieces to indicate a growing momentum in biomass transformation.

Hooray for the 21st century! It’s about time we got here.

If you’d like to learn more about innovation around biomass transformation:
www.transformingbiosolids.org.au/research/imp... Improving technologies – Transforming Biosolids

Therefore, it’s no great surprise that the best innovations in biomass transformation are not seen on farm or in green waste processing but at STPs.

#deeptech #bioengineered #newmaterials

Entrepreneurs are wise to seek out the ‘most urgent problems’ of their ideal customer. The customers with the most urgent problems are those most likely to carve out room for innovation (whether they like it or not).

It’s Plastic free July.

This is the time to proudly stand up and show the many ways that you advocate for the minimisation of plastic.

This is also the time that you proudly advocate for certified compostable plastics as an extremely useful transition tool.

I’m loving the news of the multiple new FOGO services rolling out across the country this month 🥰

#foodwaste #resourcerecovery #soilhealth

51. Robert Stoner (Kendall Square Project) on translating academic research into businesses Podcast Episode · Activation Energy · 17/04/2025 · 48m

What is the bioeconomy?

I enjoyed this episode of the ‘Activation Energy podcast’ where they define different activities in the broad swathe of possibilities and discuss the near future of this exciting area of deep tech with Dr. Robert Stoner of MIT:

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a...

If you enjoy composting avocado pits then I want to be your friend

Cleaning out (one of) my email inboxes and it occurs to me that I should perhaps occassionally look up scary climate news on social media platforms. Probably best to have a good balance of hopeful and harrowing when it comes to this topic...

#Climate #Canadawildfires