Comments on: Rubisco has become a victim of its own success

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 05:34:02 +0000

“…An enterprising evil grad student could weaponize kudzu…”

As I was reading your article the exact same thought passed into my head. I was thinking if someone put this in kudzu we would be ruined.

Think about how useless plants are though. From,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetic_efficiency

Plants, typical 0.1%[3]
0.2–2%[4]3.5-4.3%[5]
Typical crop plants 1–2%[3]

I read somewhere that you could make sugar from air and electricity. You could then feed the sugar to symbiotic yeast and bacteria genetically engineered to taste like steak and potatoes. The increase in efficiency would be stupendous. Using 20% efficient solar panels you could raise vast amounts of food. For a start you could just make cattle feed if you wished.

By: Kirk

Kirk — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 17:58:23 +0000

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the reason we don’t see too many other intelligent lifeforms out there, or signs of them in terms of mega-structures visible from here, is that most don’t make it out of the period we’re in and heading into. Knowledge and technical accomplishment uncoupled with wisdom are likely fatal, on an ecology-wide basis. Which does not bode well for the future–Add in people of inimical intent, like terrorists seeking to destroy their “other”, and, well… I have my doubts about long-term viability of the thing we’ve named “intelligence” in this environment.

There’s probably a reason you don’t see too many aliens showing up here: They’re not out there, having killed themselves in the throes of the historical moment we’re going through, as we figure out the way the universe works and how to manipulate it. Without the wisdom to know what not to muck about with? I find projections of long-term success dubious. At best…

By: CVLR

CVLR — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 17:18:15 +0000

The world is about to get very weird, very quickly.

By: Borepatch

Borepatch — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 15:47:51 +0000

That last sentence is the funniest thing I’ve read this whole week.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 13:29:26 +0000

Evolution produced another alternative, so-called C4 and CAM plants that produce four carbon products instead of the three carbon product of C3 plants. Unfortunately, the mutants are restricted to certain climates and do not thrive everywhere.