Enhancing nature as a technology: Can we take inspiration from one part of nature and put it someplace else? Written by Henrico Adrian, Caitlin Sives and Christian White
The bioeconomy and looking to nature Across the globe and in almost every economic sector, there is a pressing need and desire to modify industries to be more sustainable. The United Nations predict that human populations will reach 9.8 billion in 2050, which will put significant strain on the planet’s already dwindling resources1. Unfortunately, the industrial and agricultural revolutions that provided a multitude of commodities relied on unsustainable resources and practices. For instance, petrochemical feedstock and domesticated crops and animals, require high excesses of resources and result in high carbon dioxide emissions. Consequently, many areas of research are investigating the feasibility of moving towards a bioeconomy; a system which is expected to deliver sustainable alternatives as well as economic growth2. Such alternatives should arise from renewable biobased resources and/or energy streams which minimise waste, or better yet, incorporate waste into other desirable products or services.
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The ancient and invisible manufacturing factories all around us A particularly versatile and exciting aspect of the bioeconomy are microbes. Although invisible to the naked eye, these organisms make up 15% of Earth’s biomass and approximately 80% of its total biodiversity. Some species of microbes— including fungi, bacteria, and microalgae—can be grown faster and require less water, land space, and nutrients than agricultural crops and animals. Microbes have been used for centuries for fermentation of food and beverages, but increasing knowledge in the life sciences has enabled more advanced uses of microbes for alternative, more sustainable manufacturing. Although microbes have incredible capabilities to deliver all sorts of processes and products, the reality is that they can almost never do this on a large scale, at least not without some coaxing… Significant technological advances over the last 50 years—namely regarding machine learning, data science and information technology, robotics and automation, and genetic engineering—have allowed humans to do just that, by colliding and creating a field of emerging technology called synthetic biology (synbio)3.