Topic: Biology

Disrupter - Stephen Friend

The driving force behind a genomics technology is conducting a second experiment: figuring out whether he can transplant the energy of a startup into the giant that bought his company.READ»

NASA Coaxes Biofuel From Bags of Sewage

There are lots of creative ways to produce biofuel from algae, but NASA's takes the cake. The space agency is growing biofuel in plastic bags of sewage floating in the sea. The Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) ...READ»

Consumer Genetics Show

Genetics, this is your mainstream moment! So says conference founder and biotech entrepreneur John Boyce, who points to the rapid drop in DNA-sequencing costs and growing interest in genomics from consumer-goods manufacturers. ...READ»

Eco Building Rebuilds Itself Using Robotic Arms and Eco Power

We've seen every kind of architectural concept related to green design, but here's an exciting new one that may also be the oddest. It seems to borrow from a NASA design concept; it constantly re-builds itself and grows biofuel on its ...READ»

Fresh Start 2002: Roche's New Scientific Method

How does a giant pharmaceutical company reckon with genomics technology? By making a fresh start in how it recruits its scientists, manages projects, and uses computers. Here's how the Roche Group is reinventing how it invents.READ»

Light Immersion Technology Could Speed Up Algae Growth, Lower Biofuel Costs

Algae-based biofuels could rule the future--if we can lower production costs. A Seattle-based startup called Bionavitas thinks the solution to producing cost-efficient algae is Light Immersion Technology, which uses pencil-shaped ...READ»

What's Selling in America: part 1 of 5

"First You Get High on It, Then You Buy It." Amoeba Music Marches to Its Own Beat Memo to: The Big Bosses at Virgin Megastores Re: Your Next Big Source of Competition These days, it's hard for monstrously big music retailers to ...READ»

Fish on Friday: Venter Claims to Create Artificial Life

In a most extraordinary story, London's Guardian newspaper is reporting that genomics pioneer Craig Venter claims to have created "the first new artificial life form on Earth," as the Guardian puts it. The Guardian can reveal that a ...READ»

Dow Chemical, Algenol Biofuels Using Algae to turn CO2 into Ethanol

Sometimes, carbon dioxide emissions aren't the enemy. Florida-based startup Algenol Biofuels and Dow Chemical Co. are building a Freeport, Texas algae-based biorefinery pilot plant to turn CO2 into ethanol. The 24 acre plant, ...READ»

Go Fish: Startup Makes Algae-Based Fish Oil Into Biofuel

Fish plus algae equals oil says a new startup called LiveFuels, the latest algae-based biofuel gambit that's as controversial as it is intriguing.READ»

BP Joins Exxon in Algae Fuel Lovefest

The latest Big Oil endorsement of algae-derived fuels signals that the technology may be feasible--and a better alternative--sooner than anyone expected.READ»

The Body: Bulletproof

If you want to live forever, change your skin color, or just firm up those abs from the comfort of your own couch, you might be in luck: Gene therapy is on its way--and it's coming fast.READ»

Five Companies That Are Turning Algae Into Energy

We recently received a press release from a fledging company called Renewed World Energies claiming that it has created the first commercially viable algae-processing system. The company expects to have two acres of commercial algae ...READ»

Are There Holes In My Genes?

A new industry promises to gauge your genetic risk of getting diseases like cancer. Our reporter takes a test.READ»

Clean Rooms

A paint-on coating that kills microbes on contact.READ»

The Gene Bubble: Why We Still Aren't Disease-Free

When the human genome was first sequenced nearly a decade ago, the world lit up with talk about how new gene-specific drugs would help us cheat death. Well, the verdict is in: Keep eating those greens.READ»

Genifuel Develops Process to Turn Algae Into Natural Gas, Not Biofuel

A number of companies--Sapphire Energy, Solazyme, and Bionavitas to name a few--are working on methods to convert algae into biofuel. But Genifuel wants to turn the pond scum into something different: natural gas. The company, ...READ»

Lost Dollars in Gene Research

Billions of R&D dollars flowed to companies promising to cure our ills. Most of those companies are now dead or forgotten.READ»

• The Gene Bubble

Only the Pronoid Survive

Forget Andy Grove's famous saying about the power of paranoia. Neo-Darwinist Helena Cronin says that competition today favors the generous.READ»

Digital Matters - Issue 29

In My Humble Opinion: Genomics is the most important economic, political, and ethical issue facing mankind.READ»

Abandoned Mines: The New Algae-Harvesting Powerhouses?

Algae is one of the hottest new biofuel materials, with over a dozen companies attempting to make the slimy stuff a viable feedstock. Most of them rely on the natural simplicity of the organism--sun and water turn CO2 from algae ...READ»

Hydrogen Fuel Gets a Boost with Stainless Steel Technology

The science of producing hydrogen to power fuel-cells in microbial electrolysis processes has just received a boost with some research at Pennsylvania State University that uses stainless steel components instead of the more ...READ»

Joule Biotechnologies Figures Out How to Make Fuel From Air

It seems impossible, but biofuel startup Joule Biotechnologies claims that it has successfully produced fuel out of thin air--sort of. The company's mysterious engineered microbes require just sunlight and CO2 to squirt out ethanol, ...READ»

Adapting To New Economies

Darwin 200 Adapting to a New Economy An evolutionary perspective on economics can explain how we got into this current mess, and how we might find our way out. by Rob Mitchum • Posted February 12, 2009 08:00 ...READ»

Biotechs Wage War on Superbugs

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, three biotechs are developing new ways to wage war on superbugs.READ»