presentation for mini symposium on Soil Science in april 2014 NL

1. SKILLS
Biochemistry
Molecular microbiology
Astrochemistry/astrobiology
Geochemistry
Biogeochemistry
Geomicrobiology
Knowledge sharing
Open access / open science
Open source hardware

2. What the Soil Food Web does…
• Organisms do the work in soil and compost -
– make nutrients plant-available
– build soil structure
– suppress diseases and pests
• Organisms are fed and supported by plants
through root exudates and dead plant material
• Protozoa, nematodes, earthworms and micro-arthropods
eat bacteria and fungi to release
nutrients in plant-available forms
nothing

3. MICROBES AND SOIL FORMATION
 3.4.1 Living Organisms
 ●Bacteria -
 "A teaspoon of productive
 soil generally contains
 between 100 million and 1
 billion bacteria. That is as
 much as two cows per acre."
 - Elaine R. Ingham, NRCS
 1. Decomposers
 2. Mutualists - nitrogen-fixers
 3. Pathogens
 4. Chemoautotrophs (or
lithotrophs)

4. SOIL FERTILITY
 Bacteria can transform minerals
 Bacteria can degrade organic matter
 Many reactions possible
 CHO  CO2 + H2O
 SO4SH2S
 NO3N2
 NH3 N2
 NH3  NO3

5. SOIL BACTERIA
 Different bacteria work together
 eg NH3 + NO3 N2
 CH3  CH4 (need other bacteria
producing H)
 Potential for cleaning CH3-Br

6. RELEVANCE OF ASTROBIOLOGY
 More bacteria remain to be discovered
 Astrobiology can provide insight in processes
at the interface living – non living
 New leads for processes useful for
agriculture
 New leads for environment cleaning

7. SHARING KNOWLEDGE
 Agriculture networks of knowledge
 CIARD, GFAR, AIMS, CGIAR

8. EXAMPLE OF TOP-DOWN APROACH

9. SHARING KNOWLEDGE
What we want:
bottom-up networks of practitioners, farmers,
students, citzen scientists
Use for example iHUB (kenya)
Use contacts of open science for development
group
Use contacts from Open Knowledge global
network

10. SHARING KNOWLEDGE
HOW?

11. ACCESS TO THE INTERNET FAST GROWING

12. DEVELOPING WORLD CATCHING UP
 65% of the people who get onto the internet today
come from emerging markets (mainly using wireless)
 Meanwhile, only 24% of the people in emerging
markets are online.
 That means that whether the West realizes it or not,
the internet focus has already shifted, the ripples of
this are only now being felt.

13. TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY:
AGRICULTURAL METHODS
 Easy to follow methods
 Local production organic fertilizers
 Local sources
 Low-cost materials
 Easy measurements
 In short RockinSoils

14. TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY:
MEASURING TOOLS
 Open Source Hardware OSH
 Key technology 3D Printing
Low cost spectrometer, microscope, pH meter,
conductivity, test tubes, containers and more

17. OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE
‘Just as the power of the open-source design paradigm has driven down
the cost of software to the point that it is accessible to most people, the rise
of open-source hardware is poised to drive down the cost of doing
experimental science to expand access to everyone’
 You can download designs from
 Thingiverse or another repository (e.g. grabcad, github.com,
3Dhacker.com,
 appropedia.org, etc.)

18. OPEN-SOURCE COLORIMETER
 in environmental science, colorimeters are used to monitor the levels of nitrates,
phosphates,metals and other compounds present in effluent entering the natural
environment

19. PUBLIC LABORATORY (HTTP://PUBLICLABORATORY.ORG/HOME)
The initial versions of the Public Laboratory spectrometers were made by crudely
taping a small black paper case and a slice of D VD -R to the back of an Android
phone
Now using the powerful tool of open-source 3-D printing, you can print
a superior version of the Public Laboratory spectrometer (v3.0)

20. OPEN SOURCE SPECTROMETER

21. 3-D PRINTABLE OPEN-SOURCE MICROSCOPE
WITH SMARTPHONE

22. 3D PRINTED EQUIPMENT
Laser cut test tube racks
A) assembled rack
B) Pattern for cutting
But also possible
PCR apparatus

23. SOLAR CELLS

24. HACKTERIA.ORG
There are a growing number of organizations devoted to producing O S H for
science. One such group is Hackteria.org, which was designed as a
community
platform to encourage the collaboration of scientists, hackers and artists to
combine their expertises

25. HACKTERIA CONNECTION MAP

26. OPENSCIDEV MEETING CAPETOWN