It is always a pleasure and worry at the same time to the side of the editor to start a new column/section, ‘My Talk’ and ‘Hot Paper’ this time in the AFOB Newsletter.

As proposed in the 12th ARS (AFOB Regional Symposium), Feb. 2020, Jogyakarta, we start in this issue of Vol. 9, ‘My Talk’, the column for any members of AFOB, from students to the retirees. It can be any talks considered valuable to the society and members of AFOB: opinions, suggestions, tips, needs of help, sympathy, notice of the good and bad, etc. Dr. Koo’s talk on his unproven technique, ‘for Whom having Trouble with Lasting Emulsion’ took the honor of the opening Talk.

It is considered appropriate for a society placing a certain amount of emphasis on R&D, including AFOB, to introduce the academic publications of excellence with contemporary importance. It is more true for the publications appeared in the ‘Biotechnology Journal’, the official journal of AFOB. From this newsletter of Vol. 9, the section ‘Hot Paper’ will introduce a few publications, mainly written by AFOB members, selected in cooperation with the BTJ office.

AFOB Newsletter

In 1977, a researcher in a chemical process lab, had a hard time for days due to lasting emulsion after mixing. He was extracting a substance from a natural acid, of course aqueous, using an organic solvent. As the longer the time for emulsion break, it takes more space as well as time, meaning more money in building a plant. To ease his mind, his fingers get busy, searching anything related here and there, all the drawers in the lab. Finally, he grabs a piece of sturdy cotton cloth, knowing nothing about the former use of this material. You know the results: the milky emulsion passing through this cotton filter divides into two layers of clear liquids in a moment. It would take several tens of minutes in a normal mixer-settler. This man, now being retired from his profession has never checked how it works, and how good it can be eventually.

Now, as a very reasonable scientist, you can do some easy control experiments, checking the hydrophobicity of the filter, testing aqueous/organic continuity of the emulsion, and so on. It may give you one not-so-bad paper. Or, as a very busy engineer, you can try this un4tun8 technique first thing tomorrow morning to make your boss happy as I did 43 years ago. It will be your boss to check the IP rights before he/she builds a plant.

June 16, 2020
Yoon-Mo Koo
Korea