ETERNAL LIFE (Part 10)

In the Northern Hemisphere, today (June 21) is the longest day and shortest night of the year.  In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the shortest day and longest night of the year. Last year it was on the 20^th of June, and it will again be on that day in 2012.  The shortest day in the North will be on December 21.  The recently celebrated D-Day (June 6), of course, did not occur on the longest day that year.  Rather than confuse you with equinoxes and solstices and declinations, let me just leave this at that.

The following continues Chapter 2 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

Not All Curses Turn Out Bad

 

Within a week of Dr. McKinley’s death, the SOEST dean’s office, procedurally, began to retrieve the position. In some desperation, I wrote to Dean Barry Raleigh, to recapture that position and begin a search for Kelton’s replacement. He agreed that we could advertise, and an ad was placed with a deadline of June 6.   

 

By the summer of 1995, the Mitsui Collection Project was going well. We decided to host a dedication, and with input from Professor Matsunaga, we named it the Mitsui-McKinley International Marine Biotechnology Culture Collection.  Several of the Japanese M's paid their own way to participate in the ceremonies, including the Japanese (and world) leader of the field, Shigetoh Miyachi.

 

During this period, the University of Hawaii was in the throes of huge budget shortfalls. There was a rumor that a freeze would be placed on hiring. Unless you try to hire an important football coach at a university, it is essentially impossible to quickly bring on board anyone in any timely manner. Acting deans sometimes stay on in that role for years, maybe even up to a decade. It took all of one week for the University of Hawaii to hire coach Gregg McMackin in 2008. We succeeded 23 years earlier with Kel’s replacement. There is an amorphous cloud obscuring what really happened that summer because I can’t seem to find all the legal paperwork, but in July:

 

o      I vaguely remember a memo dated July 18 from Dean Raleigh telling me there is a freeze coming so don’t hire anyone. I interpreted that to mean if the freeze is announced.

 

o      I recall asking Associate Dean Magaard the following day, for Dean Raleigh had left on his summer vacation, to please approve hiring Oskar Zaborsky, for there is not now a freeze, but there could be one tomorrow. 

 

o      Magaard signs.

 

o      Then a month later, Raleigh, back from his vacation, sends me a sarcastic letter for selecting someone like Zaborsky, although maybe it was because I had hired someone when there was a freeze, which had, in fact, occurred. I accepted the blame for some misunderstanding or procedural uncertainty.

 

Sometimes one has to bumble into things to avoid the specter of insubordination.  I could not help, though, responding to Dean Raleigh’s deserved sarcasm with:

 

Thank you for your memo of August 21, 1995.  Yes, I too noticed some imperfection in Oskar Zaborsky’s publication record, but there were important intangibles that made him by far the best candidate. I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow afternoon to discuss these strategic points.

 

To begin with, your statement that “we don’t have the scientists to do the necessary research, except for one in the Chemistry Department,” is much too pessimistic. For example, when we first initiated the hydrogen program nearly a decade ago, we had no researchers with a proven background in this field. We were able, however, to largely recruit faculty from throughout the campus, and during the past three years of annual reviews—and these are tough three-day sessions involving a panel of about a dozen from industry and academia—have been ranked #1 among universities. In fact, I’m pretty certain that we are at the top in the whole world with respect to a totally integrated academic program, as now and then I’m asked to evaluate these research programs in Japan and the European Union.

 

To set the stage for Zaborsky, we have already begun to form a team of potential contributors from SOEST, Pacific Biomedical Research Center, School of Natural Sciences, Cancer Research Center, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and various national laboratories.  I’ve been told that during the next fifteen months the best universities and a few companies in Japan would like to send six post-docs to work with us for one and two year assignments. At the local level, we have been meeting not only with elements within the UH System, but also organizations such as the Oceanic Institute and Cyanotech to gain their participation. A report of our state-wide capabilities in natural products will be presented to Vice President Smith next month. We have the basis for forming leading programs in biopharmaceuticals, biological energy production and agribusiness.  What we do not have is a leader to bring together this potential critical mass.  That person is Zaborsky.

 

We have succeeded in gaining control of the pre-eminent marine biotechnology culture collection (with an estimate worth of about $1 million, even though the true value is inestimable), and are talking to curators of other international collections for possible transfer here. The Japanese and U.S. governments have agreed to cost-share the transfer and maintenance of the repository at our Bioresources Laboratory. Perhaps most enticing of all is that discussions have been initiated for each country to contribute $1 million/year to support research on the International Marine Biotechnology Culture Collection.  This will open the door to industrial contributions.  However, to be realistic, I wonder if we can pull this off with our current reputation and paucity of proven capabilities. We need someone like Zaborsky to insure that current talk becomes true substance.

 

When I initially inquired with key funding agencies about who they might recommend for this position in question, the feedback was nearly unanimous.  Both the Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the U.S. Department of Energy recommended Zaborsky for this role—not merely endorsed, but recommended him. We can now add the National Institutes of Health to this list of supporters.  Follow-up discussions have reinforced our selection.

 

With respect to other options, there is no one else with the credibility Zaborsky brings to develop an integrated multi-million dollar research program at the University of Hawaii in marine biotechnology, especially since the bridge to early funding needs to be linked to biological hydrogen production and environmental remediation. There are some top scholars and consultants we know who have published extensively, but each has some major flaw in personality, motivation or leadership ability. We subsequently were careful in the search process—for some of them review our proposals, and we couldn’t afford to alienate key individuals in the field. If Oskar declines our best offer (and his acceptance is far from certain under any affordable circumstances) we should be able to find an outstanding researcher who probably will need a lot of help and a decade to build a strong program in this area.

 

However, the timing is now, as the current State and University budgetary conditions are such that if we miss on Zaborsky, it is doubtful that we will be able to marshal any support for a second try, thus forfeiting our chance for attaining greater international prominence in the area of natural marine products.  We will also stand to lose:

 

a)    much of the above;

b)    the $250,000 contribution from Hawaiian Electric Company to support an individual in hydrogen systems;

c)     a golden opportunity to gain a leadership position in international biopharmaceuticals, with good potential for funding from the National Institutes of Health and the private sector; and

d)    the momentum towards our quest to bring to the University of Hawaii both a National Science Foundation Center for Bioproducts Development and U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Technology Center.

 

The campaign for Zaborsky is, thus, much larger than the position previously occupied by Kelton McKinley. You assisted Kel build-up the Bioresources Laboratory, the base from which Oskar will operate. Without this foundation we would not be able to take this next step. But indeed we can compete, and I trust that you will appreciate the timing of this incredible conjunction of personalities (living and otherwise), budgets (where hydrogen, biotechnology and sustainability appear to be surviving well) and geopolitical circumstances (the Americans and Japanese want to work together in Hawaii in this field) so that we can leverage what we now have up to world class status.

 

Mahalo.

 

A copy was sent to the Vice President of Research, Dean Smith. Four days later, I sent a memo to Smith, with a cc to Raleigh:

 

“Since our meeting last week with President Mortimer, I had long discussions with Barry Raleigh and Oskar Zaborsky and I feel comfortable in saying that Dean Raleigh is now supportive of Dr. Zaborsky as the leader we need to raise the University of Hawaii to a leadership role in marine biotechnology.  …..

 

Mahalo.

 

So Oskar was hired, but he accepted primarily because he was especially gratified about being named the Matsunaga Fellow in Renewable Energy Engineering, a program funded by Hawaiian Electric Company, headed by Michael May. The double M’s worried me a bit.  Oskar was part of an intricate web involving the National Science Foundation and Akira Mitsui, and the details might be shared in a more complete publication on this matter in the future. In the meantime, it did truly bother me that soon after accepting, Zaborsky’s wife, Marcia, yes, another M, was diagnosed with cancer and remained in the D.C. during Oskar’s relatively short reign in Hawaii.

The final segment of The M Curse will be presented early this coming week.

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Tropical Storm Linfa skirted north of Taiwan and appears to be weakening, but heading for Kyushu.  There are two tropical depressions in the Pacific off Mexico, and both are projected to continue on a path northwest, then west.

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ETERNAL LIFE (Part 9)

The following continues the serialization of Chapter 2 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

         The Curse Continues

 

Kelton McKinley was assigned to meet with the quarantine people to determine how best to have the Mitsui Collection sent to Hawaii. Little did we know that the biological scientists at the university had had a long and bitter struggle to import anything resembling bacteria into the State.  Even simple teaching samples were a problem.

 

Kelton presented his case to Larry Nakahara and Amy Higa of the Plant Quarantine Branch of the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture. As I am told, Kelton then asked, “how long will you need for your approval?” Larry responded, “maybe two or three years.” “Two or three years for only one specimen?” Asked Kelton.  “Do you have more than one sample?”  Amy inquired.  When Kelton said “maybe 3000 species,” they promptly kicked him out of the conference room.

 

Now, it is possible that Dr. McKinley was a bit angered. He was very bright, quick-witted and, well, short-tempered. Kelton had grown up in Ohio, and, he told me, watched his father, a union organizer, get beaten. Ohio, furthermore, has odd enclaves of religious cults. He was divorced from his wife, but was very protective of his daughter, who must have been about 7 years old at that time. His wife had recently written that she would be sending their daughter to one of those religious schools in that state that did not believe in evolution. Kelton was already in a troubled mental state when he walked into the quarantine office.

 

With no particular confidence, we arranged a second meeting, and, just as I was about to enter the conference room, a person who looked very familiar, walked by, who also recognized me. He was Dr. Glenn Takahashi (no relation), and he was Nakahara’s and Higa’s supervisor. We had last seen each other, maybe, half a century ago, when, as kids, we played. He decided to sit in. Also, there was Dr. Lyle Wong, higher up in the organization from the Division of Plant Industry. I don’t know if my friendship with Glen was it, for in the totality of things, anything or nothing can make an important difference, or if Dr. Wong was the key, and he was the equivalent of an angel, but, in effect, we were constructively instructed to meet with the director of the Department of Agriculture, who would gain the governor’s approval, and go to the State Legislature, as they were being difficult only because the laws forced them to be conservative.  We also had to pass through the Board of Agriculture.

 

On March 23, 1995, Kelton McKinley instantly died of a heart attack, at the age of 45. This was a total shock.  He was the key individual who had worked out the protocol and arranged to move the Mitsui Collection to Hawaii.  You can write a book of what he had to go through just to get us this far.  HNEI did not have another micro-bio person, so, we asked Dr. Kathleen Baker, someone who approximated the background of Kelton, and was hired by him to do some minor lab technician work.  Rather than go through the hiring process, I just assigned her the leadership role. To be honest, she had just the right unassuming personality (unlike Kelton) to take on the task, so she became Interim Director of the Bioresources Laboratory at Kewalo Basin, where the repository would be located. 

I should add that at this point, we did have a position, and there was thus an opportunity to hire a world class individual or just qualify Dr. Baker for this slot.  Details will be provided in the next section, but the decision to seek the best eventually led to at least two suits, although success was eventually attained when the University of Hawaii was ultimately awarded the National Science Foundation Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (NSF MarBEC).

 

Kathleen and I made the rounds of the Ag offices and the State Legislature.  I had to become more active as she had no confidence in meetings at these levels. They all loved what we were proposing: the basis for a new industry in marine biotechnology for the State of Hawaii. 

We then faced the Board of Agriculture. We were, again, in luck.  At least curses can be neutralized by something called luck.  One of the members was a former distinguished professor with my Institute, John Bardach, and another was a long-time collaborator on environmental matters, Gary Gill. The Board not only approved our application, but also determined that a new law was not necessary, for there are provisions for permitting the importation of the type of microorganisms on our list. They were mostly sensitive to larger organisms, like unagi, a type of freshwater eel, which is a Japanese delicacy. So, magically, from a two to three year ordeal, per specimen, to almost total approval of the entire Mitsui Collection, we had come a long way in a few short weeks. Actually, there were several bacteria on a restricted list, which we had to still work out, but that was trivial relative to how much had been accomplished.

This amazing success became a true miracle when we learned through this process that the University of Hawaii had been fighting these agencies for decades.  There was a lot of bad blood from previous interactions.  The State Legislature had been trying to work out some compromise during all those years and had failed.  Not knowing what we were getting into, ignorance allowed us to proceed with enthusiasm.  If I had only known the history of this conflict, I would not have even tried to import the Mitsui Collection.

With a few more bumps in the road, the pathway to the NSF MarBEC takes a few positive turns, but the end of the road sees the curse mutating.

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2437-130-86

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ETERNAL LIFE (Part 8)

The following continues Chapter 2 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

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The M Curse Begins

On May 31, 1994, at the age of 65, Akira Mitsui died of cancer related complications. He had lived in Key Biscayne, Florida for 22 years.

What to do with the Mitsui collection? The University of Miami seemed ambivalent about maintaining the lot. Both Japan and Germany expressed interest in taking it over. Three thousand samples with 928 known strains. The value was estimated to be $1 million, but the potential for biotechnology applications was priceless.

In a Department of Energy hydrogen review meeting held at Coral Gables, Florida, the program manager, Neil Rossmeissl, asked, “do you think the Japanese would pay half the cost of moving and taking care of the Mitsui Collection, if we transferred it to Hawaii?” Ever the opportunist, I said, “yes, that would be possible, and yes, Hawaii would be an excellent home for the microorganisms.” The implicit sense was that the Federal Government had paid for the collection, and it would have been a shame to give it away to a foreign country. It turns out that Japan also contributed generously to the effort, so partnering with them was only appropriate. There was no legal need for an official solicitation because of the nature of the situation. Rossmeissl, later, was the individual who was the first to indicate that we should consider hiring Oskar Zaborsky to replace Kelton McKinley.

In November of 1994, the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) hosted a follow-on meeting in Tokyo to the various gatherings held in Hawaii from the mid-80s. Another University of Tokyo professor, Yoichi Kaya, had served on the board of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, original sponsor of the biohydrogen meetings, and was director of RITE. Professor Kaya was also a key leader for the Kyoto Protocol regarding global climate change. This particular workshop featured continuous presentations for two days, where speakers spoke in a darkened auditorium. No one knew if you were there or not, so I went back to my room and took a nap from 2PM-4PM, for the talks, to me, anyway, were mostly too, too boring, and were followed by dinner, with various small groups going out to karaoke bars at the end. Typically, sleep came after midnight, and the whole thing re-started the following morning with breakfast at 7:30AM.

I was looking for an opportunity to bring up Rossmeissl’s request, when at the end of the second day, Professor Tadashi Matsunaga and I found ourselves as the only two left in his favorite Ginza karaoke bar. He was asleep more than awake, but asked me, “we don’t think that the American government would allow the export of the Mitsui Collection to Japan, even though we paid more for that collection and sent many of our best students to help. We would like to provide $50,000/year to share the Collection in Hawaii. We can also send one of our young scientists to take care of the collection. What do you think the Department of Energy would say?” Remember, Matsunaga was a post-doc with Mitsui at Miami and had closely kept up with that collection. Matsunaga by then had become editor of the Journal of Marine Biotechnology, and was well connected with Japanese funding agencies. Not sure if he was fully awake, but appreciating this incredible good fortune, I sort of repeated what I mentioned to Rossmeissl, “yes, that would be possible, and yes, Hawaii would be an excellent home for the microorganisms.”

The following morning, a select group of individuals was invited by RITE to participate in a discussion to agree on cooperative research. Chairing the meeting was Jun Miyake, who appeared to have forgotten to comb his hair, and was doing this primarily because Kazuhisa Miyamoto, the moderator, had overslept, and came rushing in a few minutes into the discussion, apologizing profusely. As I said, these past few days were strenuous and most of them had not had not had much sleep. I was the only person in good awake shape. Sitting across from me was Tadashi Matsunaga, who, very early in the meeting, keeled over, hit his forehead on the table and had an obvious red welt all morning. All three M’s no doubt had sat through two whole days of lectures, went out at night (where, as I earlier indicated, all the really important discussions occur), and had only a few hours of sleep. I’ve noticed this syndrome in dedicated scientists throughout the world, and early in my career found a simple solution: take a nap in the afternoon when you can. I brought up the matter of sharing the Mitsui Collection in Hawaii to the discussion group and all thought this was a great idea.

As Mitsui was a jealous guardian of the collection, no one previously had any access to it. Only later did I learn that many of the Japanese researchers sent to work on the Mitsui collection took the more useful ones back home just by stuffing a test tube in their pocket. They probably would have been able to officially request and obtain anything they wanted, but by the mid-1990’s, the shipment of bioorganisms was becoming a problem. Native countries were beginning to appreciate the value of their indigenous microbes and, conversely, governments were getting worried about dangerous germs entering the country.

There, too, is the attraction of Hawaii. Everyone wants to spend some time here. That really is an unfair advantage for us. On the other hand, most government program managers look upon any visit, any conference, in Hawaii, as a boondoggle and unjustified. So, there is a kind of wash here. In Tadashi Matsunaga’s laboratory (of approximately 50), there is a group known as the Hawaii Mafia, which controlled everything. They were the ones who were carefully selected to spend several months to more than a year at our laboratory in Hawaii. (In 2009, this is still true.)

On December 8, 1994, I wrote to Neil Rossmeissl about An Urgent Need to Resolve a Crisis with Opportunity for Cost-Matching:

As you know, Catherine Gregoire, Paul Weaver and I participated in the Tokyo Biological Hydrogen Production Workshop last month. Maybe the hotel was not quite up to my standards, but the whole event was well planned and the discussions went very well. Approximately 100 attended, and the participation of the private sector was strongly evident. The group resoundingly endorsed rotating this gathering every 18 months or so among Japan, Europe and the United States, with the next meeting most probably in Italy sometime early in 1996.

The value of these sessions, of course, is in the after hours unofficial discussions. A proposal was expressed by the Japanese to bring Dr. Nemoto and the entire Mitsui collection to Hawaii. Japan would provide 50% cost-matching for maintaining an expanded repository, sharing the information and carrying out related research, where focus would be on marine biological microorganisms.

One of the interesting developments at the workshop was the growing attitude that the ocean might well be the key to both large scale biological hydrogen production and remediation of global climate change. This international partnership would, quite appropriately, then, begin to focus on marine biotechnology. The article that Kelton McKinley and I wrote a couple of years ago for the charter edition of The Journal of Marine Biotechnology, which turned out to be the only U.S. publication in that issue, no doubt provided some confidence that the University of Hawaii was ideal for this purpose. Secondly, in terms of proximity and cultural similarities, Japan is clearly more comfortable interfacing in Hawaii.

From all indications, there seems to be a scramble on to gain samples from the Mitsui collection. While a few researchers from scattered laboratories might benefit, there must be a better alternative to what is looming as general dissolution of a potentially valuable resource.

As McKinley and Weaver are closely involved with the subject, have the appropriate backgrounds and are personally familiar with the key researchers in the U.S. and Japan, I have asked them to follow up with you and Catherine to lead the task to come up with a more intelligent solution and look into creation of an international biological hydrogen repository. Eli Greenbaum might also be included in an advisory capacity.

It is essential for steps to be taken now to take advantage of this opportunity. We think that Hawaii is the logical site for this activity, but we stand ready to act for the national welfare should another location become obvious or necessary. I look forward to your comments.

Aloha.

Copies were sent to various national labs and Department of Energy decision-makers. Weaver worked for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Greenbaum was from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Nemoto, a University of Tokyo PhD, was a post-doc under Mitsui at that time, and, after a stint in Hawaii, he joined Professor Matsunaga’s department.

In record time for national consensus, I was able send Matsunaga the following letter on January 24, 1995:

Dear Dr. Matsunaga:

You will be very pleased to learn that your unofficial suggestion that Japan would be interested in cost-matching the relocation and operation of the Mitsui collection from Florida to Hawaii has been very strongly endorsed by key officials within the Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Also, the University of Miami has blessed the transfer.

There are a few important logistical and legal hurdles to overcome, but we are beginning to resolve them. As a first step, the USDOE will provide continued support for the individuals managing the project until the summer. We trust that the actual movement of the organisms can occur later this year.

Catherine Gregoire-Pardo (remember, Tsukiji?) will be attending the hydrogen conference in Japan next week and has been briefed by the USDOE to work out an agreement. Can you please arrange the appropriate meetings for her to discuss this cooperative effort?

It might be of interest to you that there is new leadership in our U.S. Congress, where early and strong enthusiasm has surfaced for hydrogen. The chairman of the key House committee on Science and Technology just introduced a $100 million hydrogen bill and has been asked by the Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Advisory Committee to provide a keynote address at our next gathering in March.

Good luck on your discussions with Catherine.

Aloha,

What also helped to move this along was that I was at that time the chairman of the Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel, and that I was the one who had written the original legislation 15 years earlier. Plus, I had by then taken at least 50 trips to Japan and learned the system. Unfortunately, I never learned the language, which was no doubt a psychological hang-up to being a Japanese-American growing up in Hawaii during World War II.

International agreement was reached: $100,000 per year from Japan, and the same from the USDOE. Plus, we bring to Hawaii the Mother Lode of marine biotechnology, at a time when we were thinking about proposing an engineering research center focused on this topic. No local staff, but the beginnings of an international collaboration, building critical mass to our efforts. (There will be two additional parts, if not three, on The M Curse.)

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The Dow Jones Industrials settled 16 to 8540, while virtually all world markets increased. Wait until July 1 to buy any car, as Congress just passed the "Cash for Clunkers" bill to give you $4500 if you purchase a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Ford edged up and GMGMQ jumped 4% to 1.3. Amazing, GM lives. Oil dropped below $70/barrel and gold went up a dollar to $935/toz.

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Tropical Storm Linfa is now up to 60 MPH and might strike islands north of Taiwan this weekend. That tropical disturbance off Mexico should make landfall soon and probably won't gain a name. So we still await Andres. It has been quiet in the Atlantic, but in 1972, just about this time this month, Hurricane Agnes at 85 MPH tore up the Gulf of Mexico into the Florida panhandle and dropped a lot of moisture, up to 19 inches in Pennsylvania. Damage was $11 billion in 2009 dollars.

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ETERNAL LIFE (Part 7)

The following continues the excerpting of Chapter 2 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity. The previous episode provided the backdrop of something I called The M Curse.

Origins of the Curse

There is, of course, no such thing as a curse. However, in attempting to pull together the threads forming the fabric representing one of the greatest achievements attained by the University of Hawaii, one can’t help but notice the significance and preponderance of “M’s,” that is, people whose last names started with an M. I call it a curse because many M’s died for the cause.

There was, of course, U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga, whose authorship of bills ranging from peace to hydrogen to ocean thermal energy conversion, set the stage for the NSF MarBEC (National Science Foundation Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center). His administrative assistant in Washington, D.C., Cherry Matano, ran the office with a velvet hammer, and, in ways she did not realize, contributed to the foundation of the curse, or opportunity. Both Matsunaga and Matano have now passed away, but not in any way related to this subject matter.

Professor Akira Mitsui was a University of Tokyo graduate who married a citizen of the United States, and thus, eventually ended up teaching at the University of Miami. He became director of the International Research Center for Marine Bioscience and Technology on that campus. We met at various technical gatherings and formed a good relationship. “Pat, Pat, he screamed late one night (it was early in the morning his East Coast time) to me on a call, Nejat is trying to steal my money.” By the 1990’s I had chaired the Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Panel and the 1990 World Hydrogen Energy Conference, and had gained a reputation as one who could help people in need, especially in hydrogen related matters.

At any university, the leader of a national grant is faced with a myriad of shortfalls, and virtually his only option is to tax the people doing the research. Generally, this director was instrumental in securing the funds, so he had a rightful imperative. I, of course, tried to help by reaching Professor Nejat Veziroglu, Director of the Clean Energy Research Institute, and usually ended up commiserating with him on the agony of research administration, but the wonderful promise of hydrogen. But Professor Mitsui felt I did the best I could, for the all the funds were not, in fact, stolen. It never is. I get so much credit for doing nothing.

Professor Mitsui collected, and fiercely protected, a large number of marine microorganisms, mostly from the Caribbean. An influential post-doctoral (a one to two year period that many technical researchers devote after obtaining a doctorate to better prepare them for the real world) student of Mitsui’s in the early 1980’s was Tadashi Matsunaga, who went on to become editor of the Journal of Marine Biotechnology, dean of the College of Engineering at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and might well be now headed towards the presidency. I spent a sabbatical period on Matsunaga’s Koganei campus during a crucial period just after we were notified of the NSF MarBEC award. Professional Matsunaga also, earlier, spent some time in Hawaii, and was the first International Professor for the Blue Revolution.

Professor Shigetoh Miyachi, a fellow student with Matsui at Todai (Tokyo University), after a fruitful University of Tokyo career, left academia in the late 1980’s to become the director of the Japan Marine Biotechnology Institute (MBI). Professor Miyachi, then, was the foremost world authority in marine biotechnology, and, as will later be described, was an important partner in the formation of MarBEC. He came to the first PICHTR biohydrogen workshop earlier mentioned. Both Matsunaga and Miyachi served as the first two editors of the Journal of Marine Biotechnology.

Dr. Jun Miyake was a prominent biotechnologist in the Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) at Tsukuba. I met him in the early 80’s at a Beijing gathering chaired by Professor Veziroglu. I’m tempted to acronymize “the early 80’s” into TE80’s because this term will be used a lot—for pieces of the MarBEC puzzle all formed in that period—but won’t.

Professor Kazuhisa Miyamoto of Osaka University post-doc’d at the University of California in the early 80’s, joining a team supervised by another young researcher, John Benemann, who as of this writing, is completing our overview draft on biohydrogen. Miyamoto in the nineties served as the lead scientist in a visiting review group sent by MITI to evaluate the potential of a joint Japan-U.S. venture in marine biotechnology. You will note that all these individuals have names starting with M. The eerie thing is that I'm not leaving any Japanese colleagues out. These were the individual who played the key roles for MarBEC

Unknown to me during this formative early ‘80s period was a threesome at the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation: Oskar Zaborsky, Harvey Blanch and Lynn Preston. No M’s here, but, what is a curse without a conspiracy. All three were keys to the MarBEC success story: Zaborsky, at the University of Hawaii, was the principle investigator; Blanch became chairman of the University of California at Berkeley Chemical Engineering Department and deputy director of MarBEC; and Lynn Preston served as the NSF coordinator for the Engineering Research Center, from which MarBEC was funded. A cold case can be made that these three, with their Japanese connections, planned and orchestrated a future Pacific engineering research center in marine biotechnology engineering to feature international cooperation. Is this legal? Call it incredible vision and careful planning.

On the other hand, perhaps MarBEC was all purely coincidental. This just goes to show that irrefutable evidence is not necessarily germane to cause and effect, just like there is no such thing as a curse. As I'm innocent in all this, I really don't know, but my sense is that this was just one of those circumstances when pieces of some earlier thought came together later by pure accident.

But back to that hypothetical Curse, the American side suffered. The original director of MarBEC, the very young Oskar Zaborsky then, had escaped with his family from East Germany around the time when the follow-on director, Alexander Malahoff, and his family left Russia at the end of World War II for New Zealand. Let’s see now, the Soviet Union and East Germany now had an inside track to American biotech secrets. No, that’s not the conspiracy or genesis for the curse, but, one can’t help but wonder if this similar experience affected their psychology, as we shall see. Lorenz Magaard also emigrated from Europe (West Germany), and his first connection to MarBEC was when, as acting dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, he signed the approval letter to hire Zaborsky, and, later, went on to serve as director of the MarBEC educational program under Malahoff, who had replaced Zaborsky.

Kenneth Mortimer was selected president of the University of Hawaii in 1992 during a period of declining budgets, because of poor economic conditions in the State. He was an “expert” at reducing expenditures, and became by the nature of the times and task a very unpopular president. However, he believed that marine biotechnology offered a promising hope for a future new industry in Hawaii, and his key contribution was that he overrode his staff by providing significant cost-matching. Had he not made this command decision, the school would not even have submitted the MarBEC proposal to NSF. While his mission was to cut the budget, he had the good sense to invest as necessary.

Kelton McKinley grew up in Ohio and found his way to Hawaii after he obtained a PhD in ecology from Michigan State University, and taught for a period at a small college in Maryland. At a low point of his career, while on the Porsche sales staff in Honolulu (yes, in desperation, he was trying to sell cars, and I don't think sold even one), I hired him to become the coordinator of the biohydrogen research effort at the University of Hawaii. He had a very high intelligence with the courage to try new things.

In academia, one cannot just hire anyone off the street. If any position opens up, or funds are secured to add staff, a selection committee is formed, and there is a range of Equal Employment Opportunity, gender equity and other factors that rightfully affect the process. The reality, though, is that the preferred person will be selected, with, maybe, some excessive paperwork made all that much more necessary. The process to hire professors, deans, directors, and especially presidents, is similar, and leaves much to be desired at public universities. What is the simple solution? I have none to offer.

Even if you have been dozing off, you should have noticed that virtually everyone thus far has had a last name starting with the letter M. The ingredients for the curse are being positioned, and all these M’s were influential in helping develop pre-MarBEC resources. To take some of the mystery away, as of this writing, as long as these Japanese citizens kept their primary household in their country, they not only survived, but flourished. The curse applied only to M’s in the United States. These seeds of “M” were thus germinating for at least a dozen years. (The next episode, double this length, entitled, "The M Curse Begins," will continue tomorrow as ETERNAL LIFE (Part 8). Akira Mitsui passes away early in this real life story, and Kelton McKinley not long thereafter.)

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The Dow Jones Industrials rose 58 to 8556, while world markets were mixed. Gold dropped $8/toz to $933, but crude oil remained above $70/barrel (see right).

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Tropical Storm Linfa at 45 MPH has formed a little more than 400 miles southwest of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and is expected to pass between Taiwan and the Philippines this weekend. That tropical depression south-southwest of Mazatlan, Mexico could become Tropical Storm Andres in a day or two and move north to strike Mexico in a few days. Another disturbance seems to be organizing behind (south and east) it.

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COUNTRY#11: AZERBAIJAN

• blue represents the need of Turkization;


• green represents the need of Islamization;


• red represents the need of modernization and progress, following the European example.

The Republic of Azerbaijan, once part of the Soviet Union, is bordered by Russia to the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, Iran to the south, and Georgia and Armenia to the west.
It is slightly smaller than the state of Maine and has a population of 8.2 million.
The capital is Baku, which has historically served as the posterchild for oil and war.
The great majority is Shi’a Muslim. 
GDP/capita is $5300.
 Azerbaijan is a member of the United Nations and participates as an observer at the Community of Democracies.

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Azerbaijan is linked to the ancient Persians, and its name is thought to be derived from the Persian phrase "Land of Fire," referring both to its petroleum deposits, known since ancient times, and to its status as a former center of the Zoroastrian faith. The country was conquered and converted to Islam by the Arabs in 642 AD. After centuries of prosperity, it was ravaged during the Mongol invasions, but regained strength due to its location astride major trade routes.

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The beginning of modern exploitation of oil in the 1870s led to a period of unprecedented prosperity and growth in the years before World War I. 

At the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, an independent republic was proclaimed, and Azerbaijan received recognition by the Allies as an independent nation in January 1920, which was soon terminated by the arrival of the Red Army, becoming a union republic of the U.S.S.R. in 1936. Azerbaijan declared its independence from the U.S.S.R. on August 30, 1991. 
 Ayaz Mutalibov became the country's first President.



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Leadership constantly changed due to elections, takeovers, irregularities, you name it. Ilham Aliyev won re-election on October 15, 2008, taking 88.7% of the vote in an election boycotted by the major opposition parties. Look for a dethroning soon because the human rights situation in the country remains abominous.



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Azerbaijan does have important oil reserves and a significant agronomic potential based on a wide variety of climatic zones. The national currency, the manat, is artificially stable and appreciates against the dollar to prevent inflation. 
The World Bank named Azerbaijan “Top Reformer” in its “Doing Business 2009” report, reflecting its significant efforts to simplify its domestic regulatory requirements.

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Azerbaijan faces serious environmental challenges from contaminated soil and water/air pollution. Over-fishing by poachers is threatening the survival of Caspian sturgeon stocks, the source of most of the world's supply of caviar.

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The United States is committed to aiding a transition to democracy in Azerbaijan and its formation of an open market economy through humanitarian aid. U.S. companies are involved in offshore oil development projects with Azerbaijan and have been exploring the emerging investment opportunities in Azerbaijan in other fields, such as telecommunications.

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The U.S. Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan is at 83 Azadliq Prospect; tel. 994-12-98-03-35; fax 994-12-65-66-71. For the latest security information, the State Department web site athttp://www.travel.state.gov provides alerts and warnings. For additional information on international travel, see http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Travel/International.shtml.

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For all the news in Azerbaijan go to Today.AZ. Learn about Nagorno-Karabakh or why 30 people (including women and children) attempted to commit suicide today.

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The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 4 to 8497, and so did most of world markets. If you jumped on board with me when Ford was 1.9, an article today casts ominous doubts about their competitiveness. Ford today closed at 5.71, but will it go up (five years ago it was triple this value) or sink? Oil remained above $70/barrel and gold rose $6/toz to $940.
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There is a new tropical depression between the Philippines and China.

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ETERNAL LIFE (Part 6)

The following continues the serialization of Chapter 2 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:  

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THE M CURSE

To make a very long story short, in 1997 we finally were awarded the National Science Foundation Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center—MarBEC—one of my grandchildren. But to best appreciate the promise and tragedy, I need to go back to the beginning. Let me share one person’s view of the elements that had to be put in place to establish the groundwork to bring to the middle of the Pacific, at the University of Hawaii, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC), one of the most coveted jewels in academia, for involved was funding of $5 million/year for ten years, or more, in an emerging technology to bring supreme eminence in the field for the selected university, while boosting economic development for the community and nation. Selection as the NSF ERC designated your institution as the national, if not world, leader in that particular technology, and provided the foundation to initiate a new industry in your state.

 

So, let us analyze what went right and wrong, for both the development and demise can teach lessons for the next generation. Also, MarBEC, as some visions do, and, perhaps, livings things too, morphed into another biotech center which might not have otherwise attained any kind of reality. More and more, I’m beginning to visualize what appears to be a great grandchild. So is this a tragedy? Of course not. A curse? Yes, maybe still, but, seriously, there is no such thing as a curse.

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The Dow Jones Industrials further dropped 107 to 8504 and world markets also mostly fell.  Oil remained above $70/barrel and oil rose $3/toz to $934.

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There remains some weather disturbance south of Baha.

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ON TWITTER AND THE COST OF RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY

A few items caught my attention today:

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1. The 15June09 issue of TIME reported that from April 2008 to April 2009, GOOGLE increased visitorship 9% (121 million to 132 million), facebook 217% (22.5 million to 71 million) and twitter 1298% (1 million to 17 million). Clearly, something is happening with twitter, and you can gain a clue by clicking on "How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live."

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2. Matthew Wald (New York Times) reported in Scientific American the relative cost of power:

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Cost of electricity to U.S. residential consumers--11 cents/kWh

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Wind power--------------------------------------6.1-8.4 cents/kWh

--------------------------------(but transmission costs could be high)

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Geothermal power-------------------------------6.2-7.6 cents/kWh

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Solar thermal (trough)--------------------------19.9 -28.1 cents/kWh

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Solar Photovoltaic-------------------------------46.9-70.5 cents/kWh

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The shocker is the high cost of solar electricity. I've tended to recently use for solar thermal 10 cents/kWh from Southern California utility reports and for photovoltaics 20 cents/kWh. I was too low by a factor of two or three.

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Wind power looks good, and the big advantage of geothermal is that it is baseload. SHOULDN'T HAWAII TAKE A MORE PROGRESSIVE VIEW OF THIS OPTION? As at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, instead of treating and dumping the hot effluents in wells, this fluid can serve to initiate new industries, as proven in the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute's Community Geothermal Applications Program more than three decades ago.

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The Solar Thermal Global Pricemark Indices range from 21 cents/kWh (industrial, but 45 cents/kWh for a cloudy climate) to 37 cents/kWh (residential, but 80 cents/kWh for a cloudy climate). Best as I can tell, the solar system is the overall average of all types.

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Clearly, I will need to re-look at my earlier comparative assumptions. He did not mention conventional generation, but most references seem to use something between 4-8 cents/kWh for both coal and nuclear. However, my Huffington Post article of earlier this year reported that new nuclear powerplants (if they ever get built) and coal with carbon dioxide recapture would today cost from 15 cents/kWh to 30 cents/kWh.

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Hawaii, of course, suffers from much higher costs, for we use oil to generate most of our electricity. During the peak of prices last year, Hawaiian Electric charged more than 30 cents/kWh. Last month was exactly half that, 15 cents/kWh. Thus, we pay anywhere from 35% to 300% more than the U.S. average for electricity, and just accept it. People tend to complain about our higher price of gasoline, but the fact of the matter is that we pay just 10% more (U.S.=$2.70/gallon and Hawaii = $3/gallon--see table at right).

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The Dow Jones Industrials sunk 200 points in the first hour, and just sort of stayed there, down 187 to 8612, due to recession fears and geopolitical factors. World markets all dropped, and so did gold (minus $10/toz to $929) and oil (fell below $70/barrel, but recovered to $70.47).

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SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR CRIME: THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE DEAD

Part 1, the background, of this two part series, can be found in my June 11^th posting of the Huffington Post. This is one of those truly controversial matters that might best be left unsaid. However, if the January 1939 issue of TIME can picture Adolph Hitler on the front cover, I thought I'd likewise offer this subject for discussion.Anyway, I'm still unsure how I entered this territory, but I guess it was the unfolding of a solution for crime that just developed as I wrote Chapter 1 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity. By the way, the real cover used on January 2. 1939 was:

Let me come straight to this simple solution to crime: Three Strikes and You're Dead (TSAYD)! To repeat, THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE DEAD. Let me remind you (as underscored in both SIMPLE SOLUTION books) that simple solutions are rarely simple.

First conviction: Someone commits a crime. Do everything possible to reform the misguided individual. One remediative option is restorative justice, promoting repair, reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships. The process attempts to build partnerships, seeking balanced approaches for victim, wrongdoer and community. There will be a lot of counseling and, as necessary and possible, some restitution.

New Zealand legislated in 1989 restorative justice for juvenile crime. Then, there were 64 violations per 1,000 in the population. Today, this figure has dropped to 16.

The concept is hardly new, as the Pentateuch, the so-called books of Moses, advocated compensation for property crimes, as did the Code of Hammurabi (1700 BC). The Code of Ur-Nammu (2000 BC) required amends for violence.

Spend the bigger bucks on shoring up the early life (as underscored in Part 1), but be generous, too, on reclaiming this individual after a tolerable first offense. The primary objective will be to prevent those potential second and third crimes. Half of all inmates are back in jail only two years later. A simple way to reduce this rate is to strike fear into the offender so that he abandons all thought of committing another crime. Thus, the penalty for entering stage two should be terrible, if not horrendous.

Crime #2 is committed and the defendant is judged guilty. Standard prison? Nope. Save your tax monies to build better school systems. Find some hellacious environment where the prisoner will need to support himself, and where the cost to society will be minimal. A mild form -- I was thinking more in terms of dungeons or caves -- of this concept is represented by Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa Arizona County:

1. jail meals, such as a bologna sandwich, costs 40 cents/serving, and he charges inmates for them;

2. no smoking, no coffee and no porno magazines;

3. chain gangs to do free work on county projects; and

4. took away cable TV, but was forced to put them back because a federal court required that for jails, so he played only the Disney and weather channels, and added Newt Gingrich lectures.

When inmates complained, he told them don't come back. Two thousand prisoners in tents with no air conditioning, even when the temperature is more than 116 degrees F. Sheriff Joe says that our soldiers in Iraq are in tents where the temperature exceeds 120, in full battle gear.

The question is, will those who survive be more apt not to return? The answer is, heck, yes, but mostly because of the consequences of a third conviction! Anyway, why waste good money on the hopeless, which is defined as anyone who is stupid enough to commit a second crime knowing that the punishment will be hell. The prison of Sheriff Joe is a reasonable simple solution for strike two. There are harsher, and probably more effective (but illegal and immoral) options, but for now, let us leave them for future consideration.

Third conviction: termination! Yes, death. The U.S. has now had more than 1,000 executions since the Supreme Court ended a moratorium three decades ago. The transition will be messy, but under the TSAYD formula, this number could seriously increase in the first few years, but should decline with time. The odds are astronomically high that crime rates will significantly drop within the decade. Where are the supporting statistics? Probably none exists. I just feel this way.

Oh yes, there are millions of questions and issues. What about a white collar criminal or traffic violator? Can you execute someone for stealing a chocolate chip cookie or a magazine? You've no doubt read of a car thief, who is convicted, convicted mind you, dozens of times (well, I'm not sure what the record is, and I can't imagine our court system being so efficient as to actually convict the same person so many times), and still somehow runs loose and is arrested for stealing yet another car. Maybe enough should be three convictions for anything. Under the TSAYD system, the odds are high that this will all stop after the first arrest.

But what about those dependent on drugs who cannot control themselves or the few so idiotic as to commit that third crime? Answering this question will only irritate churches, social workers, the American Civil Liberties Union and mothers.

Then, there is that matter of mental illness. A Bureau of Justice Statistics study reported in 2006 that half of those in jail suffered from mental health problems, especially those convicted three or more times. Sounds menacingly Hitleresque, but perhaps an argument can be made that the elimination of this drag on society would only improve the quality of life for the productive and innocent. Former Education Secretary William Bennett, on his radio show, is quoted to have said:

To reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down...That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

He said his statement was taken out of context, and TSAYD definitely falls in this category.

Could a "Three Strikes and You're Dead" law ever be enacted anywhere in the world today? I hope not. But let me suggest that the concept be debated and considered, for, perhaps, a compromising intermediary first step might well be a more universal application of the Sheriff Joe penal system. However, after considerable public anguish, I would not be surprised if something a lot more draconian, but justified, actually is attempted. What somewhat worries me (because I am compassionate, honestly), though, is that many of my friends in casual conversation, with few exceptions, actually like the notion of TSAYD.

Thus, the nature of our present culture, could well be the primary impediment to ending crime forever. This could well be the legacy of our imperfect, but reasonably mature, society.

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Eighty five countries have now visited this blog site: 2307-190-85

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WHY A NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN MIGHT MAKE SENSE

My chapter 2 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity delves into eternal life and your health in general. I've always been somewhat concerned about the prospects of a national health plan, but Michael Moore's SICKO, seemed to minimize my concerns. Now, an ECONOMIST article, entitled, Life is expensive, has almost convinced me that we do need a national health plan.

Here is what that piece underscored:

1. The following table should be obvious: Americans spend as much as twice the amount on health spending as a percent of the Gross Domestic Product than developed nations with higher life expectancies.

2. While almost the entire world qualifies for some health plan, 46 million Americans don't.

3. We spend so much money on our health because:

....a. We love new medical technology, which is very, very expensive.

....b. Our doctors need to pay exorbitant rates for insurance because our judicial system favors the plaintiff. Half of malpractice suits are gobbled up by lawyers and overheads. This remains a growth industry for many attorneys.

....c. Our laws allow employees to offer health insurance with tax benefits, while individuals do not qualify.

....d. Thus, those insured only pay 15% of the total bill, and, just to be safe, almost always agree to anything the doctor recommends.

....e. However, some industries got caught in this shuffle, as GM, for example, spends more on health insurance than on steel.

....f. The stagnation of incomes can be attributed to health-care inflation, as our wages have been reduced by 8% due to these health costs.

....g. Private medical insurers will probably be wiped out over time because the government will simply offer lower rates.

....h. Kaiser Permanente will do okay.

....i. Americans pay 50% more for pills (same drugs).

....j. Drug companies already see the writing on the wall, as Merck has merged with Scherin-Plough, Pfizer with Wyeth and Roche with Genentech. They are cutting costs in advance of the inevitable.

....k. A sum of $19 billion will be provided to digitize medical records. Only 4% of American doctors have a fully functioning system.

Clearly, then, private insurers, drug companies, the American Medical Association and Republicans (because they get a lot of campaign contributions because they promote less government) will fight the Obama health plan to the bitter end. They will lose because the benefits are so obvious.  This is a Democrats versus Republicans issue where the Democrats have the numbers to prevail.

On the other hand, global warming is a whole another issue, as your immediate health is not at stake. But more importantly, there are a lot more Democratic senators from coal states than you think.  Thus, there are enough Democrats to side with the Republicans to make compromise necessary.  The result, if any, will be a tepid cap and trade law that will be worse than useless. We need a serious carbon tax, and we need it now!

I leave with a joke, I guess, from that ECONOMIST article:

I'm afraid we'll have to remove your wallet.

I trust the ECONOMIST won't mind my using their info, as I'm just promoting their viewpoint.

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The Dow Jones Industrials rose 28 to 8799, finally exceeding the 8776 of December 31, 2008. However, January 1, 2009 saw a rise to 9034. Let's see if Monday can show similar optimism. World markets mostly dropped, as did gold, minus $17/toz to $939, and oil, to $72/barrel.

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That area of disturbance 850 miles southwest of Baja California remains active, but continues to be poorly organized.

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