If it’s easy enough for #GenomeEditing to give a crop anthocyanin buildup by mutating a few regulatory sequences, how long would it be before weeds evolve the same trait & thereby escape robotic weeding?
Orgel’s rule 2: “Evolution is cleverer than you are” nasonline.org/publications/b…

Congratulations to John Davis UF IFAS Solutions on election as AAAS Fellow! ⬇️

This view might look extreme. But it’s not far from mainstream. See short video from Texas A&M University Vice Chancellor & Dean for Ag & Life Sci:
youtu.be/iifI1VRF8B4?si…
His opening statement is: “we need…to push money away from Pharma and put it back on the farm”

Here we learn that:
“Looking ahead, fermentation facilities hold immense promise in scaling up manufacturing capacity…”

We could in fact look *backwards* at exactly that, for instance to WWI & the steered fermentation of glycerol (Neuberg fermentation)
doi.org/10.1016/j.tibt…

Whatever you think about the role of ☢️ in our energy future, this is a very good 🧵 on:
-where we are now
-how the transition away from fossil fuels has barely begun
-how long & tough transitioning will be

'consider a decision problem like assessing the danger posed to a plant ecosystem by the combination of 2..pollutants..a [🦠] cellular computer residing..in that ecosystem could offer a solution &..suggest remedial actions for the plant'
Have plants no OODA loops of their own?

See Thomas Sowell’s quote “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
The more alien metabolic functions added to a cell, the higher the costs of the added proteins *and* of dealing w/ the metabolic repercussions (damage!) of the added functions. doi.org/10.1016/j.ymbe…

A metabolic trouble shared may be a trouble halved- but only if the traffic of intermediates between organisms in the supply chain is secure. Otherwise, in open systems (e.g. soil) metabolic piracy/hijacking of energy-rich intermediates can take over. See history of global trade.

A recent preprint from our lab about MOSAIC: a very easy protocol to make (short) mutations or libraries in plasmids much easier (no PCR, or assembly cloning needed), just electroporation with oligos! Probably useful for many in the field biorxiv.org/content/10.110… spread the word!

Congratulations, Ulschan! Onwards & Upwards!

'It's rank incompetence': Lionel Shriver on the real cost of going electric
This short piece captures the increasingly widespread disbelief that energy policies could *ever* have been so little informed by engineering & resource realities.
youtu.be/a4YGr2Elr0U?si…

Trucking produce X-country take$ more energy than growing it. An🛢️ to ⚡️ shift will make 🍓🫐🥑🥬🥦🫑 local & seasonal again Simon Michaux Nathan John Hagens UF IFAS Solutions UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences
'Transitioning away from fossil fuels will drive repositioning of horticulture'
doi.org/10.21273/HORTS…

Moustronauts Azul & Rosa in their space capsule, returning early** from a moonshot.

**They read a NASA report exposing the doctrine that the moon is made of green cheese as disinformation. Also, the near-zero G gave them nausea. Hence the anxiolytic herbal chew in the capsule.

Thoughtful, thought-provoking 15-min commentary from @njhagens on 'Information bifurcation'. Captures the serial dilemmas facing anyone trying to navigate our fast-changing information landscape. Kevin Folta
youtu.be/ZRQ3g36ZtWo?si…

Good question! In dry matter, a pure fat/oil (kilo)calorie weighs ~1/2 what a (kilo)calorie of sugar, starch, or protein weighs. For real foods, then water content & non-digestible matter come into play - so that a (kilo)calorie of 🥬 weighs ~50x more than a (kilo)calorie of 🧈.