Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2

[FOTD]

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Famed_geneticist_creating_life_form_02282008.html


   




A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.

Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California.

"We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page.

"We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock."

Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste, according to Venter.

Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step is life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste, according to Venter.

"We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future," Venter said. "We are limited here only by our imagination."

His team is using synthetic chromosomes to modify organisms that already exist, not making new life, he said. Organisms already exist that produce octane, but not in amounts needed to be a fuel supply.

"If they could produce things on the scale we need, this would be a methane planet," Venter said. "The scale is what is critical; which is why we need to genetically design them."

The genetics of octane-producing organisms can be tinkered with to increase the amount of CO2 they eat and octane they excrete, according to Venter.

The limiting part of the equation isn't designing an organism, it's the difficulty of extracting high concentrations of CO2 from the air to feed the organisms, the scientist said in answer to a question from Page.

Scientists put "suicide genes" into their living creations so that if they escape the lab, they can be triggered to kill themselves.

Venter said he is also working on organisms that make vaccines for the flu and other illnesses.

"We will see an exponential change in the pace of the sophistication of organisms and what they can do," Venter said.

"We are a ways away from designing people. Our goal is just to make sure they survive long enough to do that."

[Teatownclown]

Teabagging Gopeers are holding down science while elevating CO2 ....

Big One-Year Jump In Atmospheric CO2 Brings Climate Catastrophe Closer
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/06/1680871/carbon-climate-2012/
By Jeff Spross on Mar 6, 2013 at 12:30 pm
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere underwent one of its biggest single-year jumps ever in 2012, according to researchers at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2013, carbon dioxide levels increased by 2.67 parts per million — a rise topped only by the spike in 1998.
By comparison, global carbon levels averaged a yearly rise of just under 2 parts per million from 2000 to 2010, and increased by less than 1 part per million in the 1960s. The 2012 rise makes it that much more unlikely that global warming can be limited to the 2 degree Celsius threshold most scientist agree is the bare minimum necessary to avoid truly catastrophic levels of climate change. The Associated Press has the report:
Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
More coal-burning power plants, especially in the developing world, are the main reason emissions keep going up – even as they have declined in the U.S. and other places, in part through conservation and cleaner energy.
At the same time, plants and the world's oceans which normally absorb some carbon dioxide, last year took in less than they do on average, says John Reilly, co-director of Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Plant and ocean absorption of carbon varies naturally year to year.
There is a limited "budget" of carbon the world can dump into the atmosphere while still maintaining a reasonable chance of staying under the 2 degree limit: 565 gigatons by 2050 to keep our chances at 75 percent, to be precise. At our current trends — and as 2012′s jump can attest — we're set to burn through that budget in 16 years, rendering our chances of staying under 2 degrees of warming alarmingly thin. Getting back on track will require keeping the overwhelming majority of the fossil fuel available to us in the ground.
Otherwise, we face destructively high sea level rise, water supplies for hundreds of millions of people threatened by climate shifts, global crop declines, bleached coral reefs around the world, a rise in ocean acidification threatening marine ecosystems, and a host of other crises.

The end is coming...it just may take 1000 more years. Meanwhile, it's going to get mighty sticky.

[Red Arrow]

The end is coming...it just may take 1000 more years. Meanwhile, it's going to get mighty sticky.

Canada and Siberia will be the new food belts.  Most of the USA will be tropical rain forest (Amazon style).

[Gaspar]

Can't wait until I can grow bananas and avocados.
I'm eating lots of fiber to speed up the process.

[RecycleMichael]

I'm eating lots of fiber to speed up the process.

I knew there was something new about you.

[Ibanez]

Surely this will end well.

Luckily I have been watching this cool documentary called The Walking Dead that should help prepare me to survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse this will cause.

[Red Arrow]

Can't wait until I can grow bananas and avocados.
I'm eating lots of fiber to speed up the process.

Lots of stuff.

http://tropicalfruitandveg.com/tfvlista-z.php

[Ibanez]

Canada and Siberia will be the new food belts.  Most of the USA will be tropical rain forest (Amazon style).

When this happens will we have an abundance of hot Brazilian women with overactive libidos and questionable morals living right here in the Sooner state?

[Red Arrow]

When this happens will we have an abundance of hot Brazilian women with overactive libidos and questionable morals living right here in the Sooner state?

Here, in the buckle of the bible belt?

Yes, they will be here but will be subject to laws similar to laws concerning alcohol during the liquor by the wink days.

[Ibanez]

Here, in the buckle of the bible belt?

Yes, they will be here but will be subject to laws similar to laws concerning alcohol during the liquor by the wink days.

I'm going to go drive my 1970 Chevelle around for a few hours.

[Red Arrow]

I'm going to go drive my 1970 Chevelle around for a few hours.

More if it's a small block.

[Gaspar]

I'll burn some tires tonight.