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Craig Venter: On the verge of creating synthetic life
“Fourth-generation fuels” — biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock
Craig Venter, TED (video)
“Can we create new life out of our digital universe?” asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into “fourth-generation fuels” — biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock.
His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital technology, the reasons why we would want to do this, and the bioethics of synthetic life. A fascinating Q&A with TED’s Chris Anderson follows (two words: suicide genes).
(March 2008)
Terrifying or hopeful, depending on your view. Maybe both. -BA
Craig Ventner Bio. Recommended by Big Gav.
Poppy power
Brendan Borrell, The Scientist
… In the next few months, Larkin’s techniques may get another chance to prove their usefulness – as a biofuel. Geologist Eric Frost, founder of San Diego State University’s Homeland Security program, and his colleagues were brainstorming ways to transform Afghanistan’s opium poppy economy into a legal enterprise, and they contacted Larkin for his input. “Is there something more useful we can do with the crop?” they asked him. They threw around a couple of ideas until Larkin happened to mention biodiesel.
It turns out that opium poppies are known for their oily seeds; their oil content ranks up with canola. Compared with the palm-based biodiesel now used in Europe, poppy oils would run better at cold temperatures, and poppy agriculture does not require destroying tropical forests. “It looked crazy,” says Larkin, “but the further we thought about it, it was a really simple idea with a lot of pluses.” In 2005, Tasmanian farmers had even experimented with running their tractors on poppy biodiesel. At first, Larkin predicts, small biodiesel plants could supply power to Afghanistan’s numerous rural communities, but scientists could eventually increase the oleic oil content in the seeds through genetic modification to make them more valuable for export. “We haven’t got a cent yet,” he says, “but we’ve got a lot of interest.”
(March 2008)
Bacteria produces oil
Original: Researcher: Discovery could end energy crisis
Jana Cone, Tifton Gazette (Georgia, USA)
A Tifton agricultural researcher says he has found the solution to the world’s energy crisis through genetic modification and cloning of bacterial organisms that can convert bio-mass into hydrocarbons on a grand scale. The local researcher believes his groundbreaking discovery could result in the production of 500 to 1,000 barrels of hydrocarbon fuel per day from the initial production facility. The hydrocarbon fuel – commonly known as oil or fossil fuel when drilled – will require no modification to automobiles, oil pipelines or refineries as they exist today and could forever end the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, he said.
J.C. Bell, who brought the world powdered peanut butter, has spent the last four years, identifying the bacteria that produces hydrocarbon and then finding a way to genetically alter it so that it could produce hydrocarbon in greater volume.
Bell cited a USDA study that projected it was possible to produce two billion tons of bio-mass that could be converted to hydrocarbon with some modification to agriculture and forestry practices.
(15 March 2008)
Contributor Jim writes:
I wonder what this bacteria would do if it got “loose” into the open environment. That wasn’t made clear. If it can live in open air, it could potentially replicate and start digesting the forest floor, organic matter in topsoil and god knows what else. That could be a disaster. I hope someone asked that question before handing over millions for this.
BA:
Sounds like someone should read “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut (“Ice-Nine”) More recently, there’s been talk of Grey goo, as a potential outcome from nanotechnology.
Biofuel boom threatens food supplies: Nestle
AFP
Growing use of crops such as wheat and corn to make biofuels is putting world food supplies in peril, the head of Nestle, the world’s biggest food and beverage company, warned Sunday.
“If as predicted we look to use biofuels to satisfy 20 percent of the growing demand for oil products, there will be nothing left to eat,” chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said.
(23 March 2008)
