[Music]
rising sea levels shrinking ice sheets
and stronger hurricanes we’re beginning
to recognize what scientists have known
for decades the climate is changing now
we’re asking how do we fix it mostly
clean air power and cleaner
transportation and those are the obvious
answers for sure because they are some
of the biggest driving forces of climate
change but the change is slow it’s like
turning the Titanic we can’t persuade
everyone to stop driving cars and at
this point we’re still dependent upon
expensive non renewable energy sources
we need to widen our perspective and
look to less obvious disruptors of our
climate like those four-legged culturing
mammals dotting our state now trust me
cows really do affect our climate if you
were to analyze the composition of a cow
burp you would discover that twenty to
forty percent of the burp is methane gas
you may know methane as the main
component of natural gas but more
importantly methane is a greenhouse gas
meaning it traps the sun’s radiation and
warms up our planet just like the most
infamous greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
emitted from cars methane emissions do
come from a variety of sources such as
coal mines and landfills but a quarter
comes from cow burps in the pie chart
shown cows are actually included under
the label enteric fermentation the
scientific name for the digestive
process found in livestock including
sheep and goats that causes them but
mainly cows to produce methane now
methane only accounts for 10 percent of
total greenhouse gases while carbon
dioxide accounts for 81 percent but
here’s the catch in a five-year period
methane traps 100 times more heat than
carbon dioxide
so therefore the methane from cows is of
much greater concern because it’s heat
trapping ability
makes up for its smaller portion in the
atmosphere let’s put this into
perspective according to a study the
amount of methane released by a cow in a
year is equivalent to four tonnes of
carbon dioxide a car on the other hand
produces 4.7 tonnes in another
comparison you could drive around 8,000
miles in a year to release the same
amount of carbon dioxide a cow what
theoretically admit to address this
issue of cow burps then a team of six
undergraduate students sub several
professors and mentors and I work
towards cleaner Cal verbs over the last
summer for a competition called IgM
International genetically engineered
machine essentially three hundred teams
around the world conduct scientific
research using synthetic biology the
field synthetic biology combines biology
and engineering to design and redesign
biological systems such as cells or
genetic circuits for example the teams
have researched ways to detect the
freshness of a fruit before consumers
buy it and ways to more effectively
detect diagnose diseases such as
tuberculosis or cancer the university of
nebraska-lincoln
researched burping cows and received
gold medals for it before I continue
though I want to clarify that I don’t
want to make it seem as if it’s all the
cows fault for climate change since the
process of producing methane is a
natural one in fact humans are the ones
raising the livestock and increasing
their numbers to feed the world’s
growing population it’s just that their
methane is coupled with human activities
that greatly impact earth so we try to
limit greenhouse gas emissions in any
way possible the team ultimately chose
this project for two main reasons first
we all have a connection to cows some of
some of us eat them and some of us own
them but here in the state of Nebraska
our beef industry dominates and our
cattle population ranks second among all
50 states Nebraska has over 6 million
cows and each one releases about 70 to
120 kilograms of methane each year in
total that’s about 660
thousand tons of methane each year from
just Nebraska so for us then it is
crucial that we reduce our statewide
environmental footprint second for some
in the industry the economic factors
mattered just as much as the
environmental according to research
about six percent of the feed energy is
lost to methane production while six
percent might not seem like a lot
farmers have estimated that if this six
percent had been conserved about $20 per
head of cattle could have been saved
reduce reducing methane emissions could
then perhaps save money for farmers and
lower beef prices so at the very
beginning of our project we had to
understand why cows release methane and
it’s similar to why you and I released
gas after we eat a lot of beans
it’s the workings of the digestive
system structurally though our stomachs
aren’t even the same which is why we
don’t release methane a cow’s stomach
actually has four specialized
compartments with the rumen being the
largest the rumen contains these
microbes and organisms that help the cow
to digest its food such as grass which
has certain plant fibers we can’t digest
through processes in the room and that
then do digest this food energy is
provided to the cow and in addition to
the energy hydrogen and carbon dioxide
are also created as byproducts
microorganisms called methanogens then
combine the two to make methane and
eventually it’s burped out knowing this
methane producing mechanism we were able
to come up with a few solutions and
luckily for those of you who eat me our
methane reduction strategies lets you
keep your beef for dinner
our team solution involved genetic
modification of e-coli before you worry
our e coli strains were not the ones
that caused harm to humans but are the
most widely used for genetic engineering
they’re safe replicate quickly and are
good at hosting foreign DNA our solution
was based off research done about how
see lead has been shown to reduce
methane emissions so we isolated the
gene in the seaweed that produces the
compound primarily responsible for this
effect this
town called bromoform reacts and removes
an important vitamin needed in the
methane production pathway thereby
inhibiting the pathway the new u coli
that would be genetically modified this
gene would be introduced to the cow’s
stomach to essentially mass-produce the
compound this way there wouldn’t be any
need for thousands of seaweed farms or
worries about feeding the cow too much
seaweed then in the lab we were actually
able to insert the genes that we wanted
and genetic modification is essentially
as a name says altering the genes or DNA
of an organism we started by extracting
a circular piece of DNA from a bacterial
cell then we cut it out to specific
sites with these special enzymes that
acted as scissors and then the gene that
we want it inserted then fit into the
open ring like a puzzle piece and once
the circle was complete again we have
put it back into the e.coli so the cell
cell could carry out the new
instructions though at the end of our
project we weren’t able to be to have
time to thoroughly test our solutions
those of us involved believe we further
thought and interest in an area that has
much potential for me it was exciting
and fulfilling to be a part of this
research experience as I explored
discovered grew and engaged and I hope
today you remain more aware so maybe the
next time you’re driving down i-80 and
see some of our farm friends on the side
you’ll be more conscious about how even
they are affecting our environment but I
also hope you’ll consider how each
little action you take can impact our
world because if cows could burp a
little less and we could do a little
more our climate could change in a big
way for the better thank you you
rising sea levels shrinking ice sheets
and stronger hurricanes we’re beginning
to recognize what scientists have known
for decades the climate is changing now
we’re asking how do we fix it mostly
clean air power and cleaner
transportation and those are the obvious
answers for sure because they are some
of the biggest driving forces of climate
change but the change is slow it’s like
turning the Titanic we can’t persuade
everyone to stop driving cars and at
this point we’re still dependent upon
expensive non renewable energy sources
we need to widen our perspective and
look to less obvious disruptors of our
climate like those four-legged culturing
mammals dotting our state now trust me
cows really do affect our climate if you
were to analyze the composition of a cow
burp you would discover that twenty to
forty percent of the burp is methane gas
you may know methane as the main
component of natural gas but more
importantly methane is a greenhouse gas
meaning it traps the sun’s radiation and
warms up our planet just like the most
infamous greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
emitted from cars methane emissions do
come from a variety of sources such as
coal mines and landfills but a quarter
comes from cow burps in the pie chart
shown cows are actually included under
the label enteric fermentation the
scientific name for the digestive
process found in livestock including
sheep and goats that causes them but
mainly cows to produce methane now
methane only accounts for 10 percent of
total greenhouse gases while carbon
dioxide accounts for 81 percent but
here’s the catch in a five-year period
methane traps 100 times more heat than
carbon dioxide
so therefore the methane from cows is of
much greater concern because it’s heat
trapping ability
makes up for its smaller portion in the
atmosphere let’s put this into
perspective according to a study the
amount of methane released by a cow in a
year is equivalent to four tonnes of
carbon dioxide a car on the other hand
produces 4.7 tonnes in another
comparison you could drive around 8,000
miles in a year to release the same
amount of carbon dioxide a cow what
theoretically admit to address this
issue of cow burps then a team of six
undergraduate students sub several
professors and mentors and I work
towards cleaner Cal verbs over the last
summer for a competition called IgM
International genetically engineered
machine essentially three hundred teams
around the world conduct scientific
research using synthetic biology the
field synthetic biology combines biology
and engineering to design and redesign
biological systems such as cells or
genetic circuits for example the teams
have researched ways to detect the
freshness of a fruit before consumers
buy it and ways to more effectively
detect diagnose diseases such as
tuberculosis or cancer the university of
nebraska-lincoln
researched burping cows and received
gold medals for it before I continue
though I want to clarify that I don’t
want to make it seem as if it’s all the
cows fault for climate change since the
process of producing methane is a
natural one in fact humans are the ones
raising the livestock and increasing
their numbers to feed the world’s
growing population it’s just that their
methane is coupled with human activities
that greatly impact earth so we try to
limit greenhouse gas emissions in any
way possible the team ultimately chose
this project for two main reasons first
we all have a connection to cows some of
some of us eat them and some of us own
them but here in the state of Nebraska
our beef industry dominates and our
cattle population ranks second among all
50 states Nebraska has over 6 million
cows and each one releases about 70 to
120 kilograms of methane each year in
total that’s about 660
thousand tons of methane each year from
just Nebraska so for us then it is
crucial that we reduce our statewide
environmental footprint second for some
in the industry the economic factors
mattered just as much as the
environmental according to research
about six percent of the feed energy is
lost to methane production while six
percent might not seem like a lot
farmers have estimated that if this six
percent had been conserved about $20 per
head of cattle could have been saved
reduce reducing methane emissions could
then perhaps save money for farmers and
lower beef prices so at the very
beginning of our project we had to
understand why cows release methane and
it’s similar to why you and I released
gas after we eat a lot of beans
it’s the workings of the digestive
system structurally though our stomachs
aren’t even the same which is why we
don’t release methane a cow’s stomach
actually has four specialized
compartments with the rumen being the
largest the rumen contains these
microbes and organisms that help the cow
to digest its food such as grass which
has certain plant fibers we can’t digest
through processes in the room and that
then do digest this food energy is
provided to the cow and in addition to
the energy hydrogen and carbon dioxide
are also created as byproducts
microorganisms called methanogens then
combine the two to make methane and
eventually it’s burped out knowing this
methane producing mechanism we were able
to come up with a few solutions and
luckily for those of you who eat me our
methane reduction strategies lets you
keep your beef for dinner
our team solution involved genetic
modification of e-coli before you worry
our e coli strains were not the ones
that caused harm to humans but are the
most widely used for genetic engineering
they’re safe replicate quickly and are
good at hosting foreign DNA our solution
was based off research done about how
see lead has been shown to reduce
methane emissions so we isolated the
gene in the seaweed that produces the
compound primarily responsible for this
effect this
town called bromoform reacts and removes
an important vitamin needed in the
methane production pathway thereby
inhibiting the pathway the new u coli
that would be genetically modified this
gene would be introduced to the cow’s
stomach to essentially mass-produce the
compound this way there wouldn’t be any
need for thousands of seaweed farms or
worries about feeding the cow too much
seaweed then in the lab we were actually
able to insert the genes that we wanted
and genetic modification is essentially
as a name says altering the genes or DNA
of an organism we started by extracting
a circular piece of DNA from a bacterial
cell then we cut it out to specific
sites with these special enzymes that
acted as scissors and then the gene that
we want it inserted then fit into the
open ring like a puzzle piece and once
the circle was complete again we have
put it back into the e.coli so the cell
cell could carry out the new
instructions though at the end of our
project we weren’t able to be to have
time to thoroughly test our solutions
those of us involved believe we further
thought and interest in an area that has
much potential for me it was exciting
and fulfilling to be a part of this
research experience as I explored
discovered grew and engaged and I hope
today you remain more aware so maybe the
next time you’re driving down i-80 and
see some of our farm friends on the side
you’ll be more conscious about how even
they are affecting our environment but I
also hope you’ll consider how each
little action you take can impact our
world because if cows could burp a
little less and we could do a little
more our climate could change in a big
way for the better thank you you
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