In the rapid-fire tech and political world of 2017, a day feels like a month, a year is like a generation, and sometimes it feels like 90% of the population hasn’t heard of a technology wave before it is swamped by the next tsunami, and that may well be the case with the first wave of CRISPR-Cas technology. It […]
By Vonnie Estes, Special to The Digest Around the world, manufacturers make everyday products, from food to containers to fabrics, using processes and ingredients developed decades to centuries ago. These manufacturing systems have enabled impressive economic growth and raised the global standard of living. But as the land, water, and fossil fuel resources those systems […]
As Dyadic cashes out of industrial biotech and retains a C1 license for pharma, DSM and Syngenta also announce a partnership. Companies are girding their loins for the long haul. The Digest takes a look, In Florida, DuPont Industrial Biosciences will acquire substantially all of the enzyme and technology assets Dyadic’s Industrial Technology business for $75 […]
Part II: UTOPIA? The Crop and Soil Technology Revolution, and what’s sizzling in drones, robotics and analytics. “They have built farm-houses over the whole country, which are well contrived and furnished with every necessary…those who live on the farms are never ignorant of agriculture, and commit no fatal errors, such as causing a scarcity of corn.” […]
As America’s farmers hit retirement age and technology options explode, what comes next? The Digest commences a five-part series today. The average age of the US farmer reached 58.3 years in the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture. For sure, farmers have been older than the general population for some time. Why is it becoming important now? […]
Here are the 50 most-read stories, out of the 3,400 we covered last year in The Digest. 1 Where are we with algae biofuels? The page view champ this year, clocking in at 17,821 reads — though the “algae fuels” story is starting to look like a verse out of the song “In the year 2525”. […]
Plastics — we love the price, performance and versatility. But why not renewable and sustainable, too? We want it all! And you can have it, with 10 technologies that are changing the landscape. Let’s dive into the who and why. 10. Using plastic to make fuels One way to get plastics out of the landfill, where […]
$150 million, 100+ employees, a new sustainable materials center, and a commitment to move off fossil fuels dependency by 2030. From Denmark comes the news that LEGO will replace its fossil-based plastics by 2030 with sustainable alternatives. The company announced that it will invest $150 million in the effort to cover research, development and implementation […]
What just happened? First of a new generation of bioeconomy wonders now counts Jerry Yang, Max Levchin, Eric Schmidt funds as investors’ and “several Fortune 100 companies” among its customers. Today, the Zymergen story, so far, can now be told. And we look at potential roadblocks down the road for this new class of companies coming […]
With the news that Cargill has acquired OPX Bio’s fermentation-based technology, which featured a hot route to biobased paints, adhesives, diapers, and detergents — we take a look back at a DOE paper that sparked so much interest in these biobased molecules. If they handed out Platinum and Gold certification to scientific papers as we […]
