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BioBus Ceremony Marks Adoption of Biodiesel Fuel

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Hartford, Conn., April 20, 2007 –Connecticut’s BioBus, the bioscience laboratory on wheels, will be at the Capitol building in Hartford April 26 to mark a special occasion: the BioBus has gone green.

The BioBus will make its trip to the Capitol powered by biodiesel, a fuel that will both propel the bus and power generators serving the scientific equipment on board. The adoption of biodiesel has been made possible through the generous support of Greenleaf Biofuels of Guilford, which has agreed to produce and supply the fuel to the BioBus for the next two years.

In a ceremony beginning at 11:00 am, the BioBus staff will collect vegetable oil from Connecticut schoolchildren, for later conversion into biodiesel fuel, so that they too will have a role in helping the BioBus go green.

From 9:00 am till 11:00 am, 9th graders from Hartford’s Sport and Medical Sciences Academy will be on board the bus conducting the Mystery of the Crooked Cell, an experiment from the BioBus curriculum that uses gel electrophoresis to explore genetic testing of disease.

At 1:00 pm, Gus Kellogg, Founder of Greenleaf Biofuels, will give a short talk on biofuel and its emerging importance.

All events are open to the public, who are invited to tour the BioBus when they stop by. Children who wish to contribute oil are asked to bring approximately a half cup of any vegetable oil in a recyclable container that they will take back empty with them. For those who can’t make the 11:00 am ceremony, oil donations will be accepted through 2:00 pm.

“Going green was a logical step for the BioBus,” said Dr. Sarah Berke, director of Biobus Educational Programs. “It’s one more reason that the BioBus Programs are now Connecticut’s Number 1 hands-on science education experience.”

A project of CURE, the state bioscience organization, Connecticut’s BioBus is a 40-foot-long mobile science learning center outfitted with the latest in bioscience equipment and state-of-the-art computers.

Under the related BioConnection Program, which is also free of charge, schools are lent laboratory equipment, and teachers are trained to conduct in their own classrooms experiments from the curricula of Connecticut’s BioBus.

Curricula and teacher training in the CURE BioBus Educational Programs have recently been revised with a key goal in mind – preparing Connecticut students and teachers for the new state science mastery standards, including the Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Test.

For more information about the BioBus Educational Programs visit the website at www.ctbiobus.org or contact Sarah Berke at 203-777-8747.

The mission of Greenleaf Biofuels (www.greenleafbiofuels.com) is to rapidly develop the demand for, and supply of, biodiesel in the northeastern U.S. The founders are committed to making the nation a cleaner, safer place for future generations.

CURE (http://www.curenet.org) is a statewide coalition of over 100 educational and research institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and other supporting businesses. It is dedicated to promoting the growth and increasing public understanding of biomedical research and science in Connecticut.