{"id":857,"date":"2014-04-03T17:58:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T22:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=857"},"modified":"2014-04-05T14:13:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T19:13:33","slug":"engineering-easier-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/engineering-easier-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering easier trees<img src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/canada_flag_icon_small.gif\">"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_858\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Poplars-in-Greenhouse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-858\" class=\"size-full wp-image-858\" alt=\"These poplar trees have been genetically engineered to produce a modified form of lignin, the \u2018glue\u2019 that holds wood together. By modifying the lignin, scientists can make it easier to separate valuable cellulose, which is made into paper, cardboard and other products. (Credit: Shawn Mansfield)\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Poplars-in-Greenhouse.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Poplars-in-Greenhouse.jpg 400w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Poplars-in-Greenhouse-292x300.jpg 292w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-858\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">These poplar trees have been genetically engineered to produce a modified form of lignin, the \u2018glue\u2019 that holds wood together. By modifying the lignin, scientists can make it easier to separate valuable cellulose, which is made into paper, cardboard and other products. (Credit: Shawn Mansfield)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Wood contains both cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is the key component of paper, cardboard and other paper products. Lignin a material that is generally discarded as waste or burned for heat energy. The process of separating the two requires the use of both valuable energy and harmful chemicals.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers have genetically engineered poplar trees to produce a chemically modified form of lignin that is easier to separate from cellulose. The resulting wood can be separated using fewer harmful chemicals and less energy than conventional wood<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/344\/6179\/90.abstract\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Original research paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published in the\u00a0journal\u00a0<em>Science<\/em>\u00a0on\u00a0<strong>April 3, 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Names and affiliations of selected<\/strong><strong>\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/profiles.forestry.ubc.ca\/person\/shawn-mansfield\/\" target=\"_blank\">Shawn Mansfield<\/a>, University of British Columbia<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wood contains both cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is the key component of paper, cardboard and other paper products. Lignin a material that is generally discarded as waste or burned for heat energy. The process of separating the two requires the use of both valuable energy and harmful chemicals. Researchers have genetically engineered poplar trees to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[644,215],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-tip","tag-energy","tag-environment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Poplars-in-Greenhouse.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-dP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}