On Sunday,
February 24, 2008, a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew 221 miles using biofuel in
one engine. Over the next few months several additional commercial aircraft
completed proof of concept flights using biofuels. The fuel was expensive (as
much as $244 per gallon) and used a lot of coconuts, algae and babassu nuts as
the production feedstock. The dream is cheaper low carbon petroleum to replace the
current expensive nonrenewable petroleum. The thinking is that the best
replacement for petroleum is petroleum (The corporate slogan of the biofuel company LS9). The promise of bioengineering is
definitely science from the future. The early biofuels were produced using
microbes found in the wild, now bioengineering is custom designing microbes by
changing the DNA to achieve predefined specific results. The efficiency has increased
and the costs are dropping. We are still in the infancy of bioengineering
science and for now the promises exceed the reality. Genetically modified foods
and genetically modified organisms are creating more scare tactics than
benefits while the best money to be made in biofuels is by creating the
propaganda against biofuels. Even at this early stage what can be imagined is stunning,
magnificent, fearful and intimidating. Toxic waste dumps can be made to produce
petroleum while generating electricity, medicines that make us immune to viruses,
houses grown from a seed, thread stronger than a steel bar, cures for diabetes and cancer. As with all new
science what can be imagined will only be exceeded by what actually is done, applications no one can imagine.
Some of the fears of
bioengineering are justified, two examples of science gone wrong. Newton’s
theory of gravity created the mathematics of ballistics that made army
artillery lethal and the same mathematics allows us to maintain communication satellites
in orbit. Einstein’s theories created nuclear weapons and laser bar codes.
Knowledge doesn’t kill, people kill. Usually it is people using knowledge in
the body politic that creates destruction. What can go wrong with intelligently
designed life, what can the military do with a computer designed germ? In the
future we will kill each other with green bullets and biodegradable land mines.
Human history
would indicate that if we can do something we will. There is no international
institution that can control scientific advances. The large
corporations that will lose market value due to bioengineered products cannot
stop bioengineering development. There is big money to be made in
bioengineering and tomorrow's dawn can not be stopped or even slowed.
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