http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

Very interesting development, given the current state of things, wouldn't you all say?

There are the usual genetically modified worries, like these things get out of control and produce oil everywhere. That's sobering, but still a promising technology.

Carbon neutral too.

Actually carbon negative (I saw the same story).

This is really exciting. I'm not terribly worried about these critters being genetic modifications - as the article points out, they will live their entire lives in a vat, then be destroyed. We deal with much more dangerous stuff in Umatilla.

The question is, can they take this lab work and turn it into industrial-sized oil making industry or not? I'm sure there are many unforseen problems, but I'm going to give some serious consideration to buying stock.

Didn't catch that. You are right! Carbon negative.

(though I wonder the energy required to build and contain them isn't gonna balance it out --mostly a curio though, it's a good enough equation to not even be a worry)

If I had it to do over again, two areas of technical interest would be my focus:

one would be electro-mechanical. Little computers doing big things are only a growing trend.

The other would be bio-tech like this. It's a highly distributed solution that is going to get a lot of work done on mother natures dime.

I'm mostly there on the vat thing. The level of control we can achieve is solid. But... we really don't know what they will do in the real environment.

That's just one of those things that deserves a few extra looks, that's all.

Anyway, our understanding of genetic manipulation is getting pretty good --and it's seen real gains in repeatability, which is needed for scaling and control.

The idea of making bugs that do stuff we want is seriously intriguing. Think also of breaking down annoying materials. Just as much potential, particularly if the result is something usable.

Cool stuff!

Yes, this is interesting. Now that I think about it, Elderbox bugs have the same kind of excretment (color-wise anyway) -- so with the problem I have with them around here, I ought to find a way to harvest it and power my vehicles!