...Dr. Venter, now 63, made his name as a gene hunter. He was co-founder of a company, Celera Genomics, that nearly left the federally funded Human Genome Project in the dust in the race to determine the complete sequence of DNA in human chromosomes. He garnered admiration for some path-breaking ideas but also the enmity of some scientific rivals who viewed him as a publicity seeker who was polluting a scientific endeavor with commercialism.
Now Dr. Venter is turning from reading the genetic code to an even more audacious goal: writing it. At Synthetic Genomics, he wants to create living creatures — bacteria, algae or even plants — that are designed from the DNA up to carry out industrial tasks and displace the fuels and chemicals that are now made from fossil fuels.
“Designing and building synthetic cells will be the basis of a new industrial revolution,” Dr. Venter says. “The goal is to replace the entire petrochemical industry.”
His star power has attracted $110 million in investment so far, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars in research financing, making Synthetic Genomics among the wealthiest companies in the new field known as synthetic biology...
...Exxon Mobil is giving Synthetic Genomics $300 million in research financing to design algae that could be used to produce gasoline and diesel fuel. (The new greenhouse will be used for that research.)
BP has invested in the company itself, turning to Synthetic Genomics to study microbes that might help turn coal deposits into cleaner-burning natural gas. Another investor, the Malaysian conglomerate Genting, wants to improve oil output from its palm tree plantations, working toward what its chief executive calls a “gasoline tree.”
And in a deal expected to be announced this week, the pharmaceutical giant Novartis will work with Dr. Venter to synthesize influenza virus strains as a potentially faster way to make flu vaccines.
Synthetic Genomics is also exploring the use of algae to produce food oils and, possibly, other edible products.
Dr. Venter muses, “What if we can make algae taste like beef?”
Or maybe he wants soylent green to taste a little less like long pork?
Seriously, Dr. Venter's excellent adventure is a bit like reaching around your ass to scratch your nose. Recombinant DNA technology could easily make bugs that make hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. Simply put, this would be much too easy, doing for a million dollars or so what Venter wants to do for billions.
Not so much money, and likely to produce an organism every third world country could easily share. This would be a hard thing to control, once done. This would leave big oil holding so much dry sand and seawater. It would cause peace to break out all over, as the main motivation for the Great Game was lost.
What's the point of being Master of the Universe when you can have no slaves?
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