This episode examines the OMEGA Global Initiative, which is developing new technologies to generate energy while at the same time reducing pollution. The idea is to build floating algae farms next to waste-water treatment plants. The algae eat the waste, clean the dirty water, absorb carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen and perform several other environmental benefits before being converted into bio-fuel. The guest is Jonathan Trent, founder and director of the OMEGA Global Initiative and a long time scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center who's spent most of his career studying microbiology, biochemistry and nanotechnology. He's also an adjunct professor of bio-molecular engineering at the University of California Santa Cruz and an elected Fellow at the California Academy of Sciences, and he has a Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He says that the OMEGA technology can also be applied to creating self sustaining life support systems for long space missions. Even though some of the initial work on OMEGA was done at NASA, Jonathan emphasizes that the OMEGA Global Initiative is his private project and is not affiliated with or funded by NASA.
- Length: 00:28:27
- Producer: PegMedia
- Series: Special < 30 min. DELETED
- Category: Educational
