Is DIY Algae Farming the Future? 322
hex0D points to this "interview with Aaron Baum explaining why people growing algae at home for food can help the environment and their health, and what he's doing to facilitate this. 'We'd like to create an international network of people growing all kinds of algae in their homes in a small community scale, sharing information, doing it all in an open source way. We'd be like the Linux of algae – do-it-yourself with low-cost materials and shared information.' And one of the low-cost materials is your household urine."
Looks like people are starting to see the benefits (Score:5, Interesting)
Although I wouldn't consume algae as a food source, I could certainly use it as a fuel source.
I even make LED panels for growing specific species of algae, for this very purpose.
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:5, Interesting)
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What the other response to this post is trying to say is that chlorophyll can't convert most light frequencies into food. Converting sunlight into blue light, even with a 30% efficient process, would mean more sunlight + co2 + h2o converted into sugar (or whatever you're trying to produce).
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Just add yeast. Fun for all.
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growing algae to produce sugar
Combine with this: viologen mediated sugar-air fuel cell [blogspot.com]. The viologen is a major weed killer, so it's quite cheap.
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Ever had a spirulina [wikipedia.org] product, usually a smoothy/drink?
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A big issue with biofuels is the water used. It's sort of dead obvious once you think about it. It doesn't take a heck of a lot of water to pump a barrel of oil out of the ground, but producing a similar amount of ethanol from corn will require a lot of water for irrigation, and we're already straining our freshwater water resources. According to a report commissioned by congress [http://www.circleofblue.org/water [circleofblue.org]
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:4, Interesting)
AT 100,000 gallons of oil/acre/yr in the desert Algae may be
the new source of oil for the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hioZ7C6HLs [youtube.com]
With some modification it can be switched over to
produce hydrogen in a biological fashion as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_hydrogen_production [wikipedia.org]
Once we get the infrastructure for hydrogen in place
it would be a viable transition between these two methods.
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:5, Insightful)
Once we get the infrastructure for hydrogen in place
it would be a viable transition between these two methods.
Why bother? We have the fueling infrastructure for biodiesel right now, and mechanics who know how to work on diesels. Diesel fuel is less dangerous than gasoline, while hydrogen is arguably moreso, or at least in the same ballpark. Batteries are gaining quick charging technologies that are setting them up to rival the speed of hydrogen refueling, and they are already approaching the best-case energy density of hydrogen while currently providing superior efficiency in giving up their energy as opposed to hydrogen through a fuel cell. Hydrogen in cars is stored at extremely high pressures necessitating an extremely costly storage and distribution network that is simply not necessary with diesel fuels; meanwhile we have an adequate power grid for nighttime charging of MANY electric vehicles before ANY changes need be made. Indeed this would improve the overall efficiency of the grid system because of our currently wasted nighttime base load.
There are zero compelling reasons to use fuel cells. Give up on them already: that means giving up on hydrogen, too, which has its own special set of problems that we simply don't need on the road. Biodiesel from algae grown in our deserts on seawater (and optionally coupled with saltwater aquaculture of other food that people actually want to eat!) has the potential to replace our entire diesel fuel consumption and then some, and profitably, too.
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:4, Insightful)
Why bother?
For cars and heating? You wouldn't - it would be a stupid idea. For laptops and other mobile devices, it might make sense. You can make a hydrogen fuel cell a lot smaller than you can make a diesel turbine. More likely, however, you'd want to produce methanol, which can also be used in very small fuel cells but can be stored easily without needing to be kept under pressure. Interestingly, these are more efficient at around the temperature of a warm CPU, so you might end up with the methanol flowing in a pipe over your chips then cooling the waste water (or just dumping it) in future laptops.
The main problem with using fuel cells (of any kind) in consumer electronics is that you can't recharge them at home, you need to buy the fuel to refill them. A small algae tank that could produce methanol would eliminate this problem and make it a much more attractive fuel source.
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:5, Insightful)
Batteries are improving faster than fuel cells, though.
But methanol still has 15 times the energy density of the best Lithium-ion batteries, and about 5 times the energy density of LiS batteries (which currently die after so few charge cycles that they're not in use anywhere outside military UAVs).
Except that practical methanol fuel cells are seemingly even further away than the hydrogen ones.
The first functional cells were produced in 1990. They've been refined significantly since then and they are commercially available.
Also, a methanol leak is immediately hazardous: the bad things in it can be absorbed through the skin and make you blind
You need to consume 10ml to make you blind. Absorbing this much through your skin would be very difficult. It's volatile, so a small leak will disburse into the air, making it only dangerous in confined spaces.
I'm just not seeing this EVER being allowed on public transportation, nor should it be.
Better check the law. They've been allowed for a few years. Quoth Wikipedia (complete with citations, if you want to follow them):
However, the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP) voted in November 2005 to allow passengers to carry and use micro fuel cells and methanol fuel cartridges when aboard airplanes to power laptop computers and other consumer electronic devices. On September 24, 2007, the US Department of Transportation issued a proposal to allow airline passengers to carry fuel cell cartridges on board[4]. The Department of Transportation issued a final ruling on April 30, 2008, permitting passengers and crew to carry an approved fuel cell with an installed methanol cartridge and up to two additional spare cartridges
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:5, Interesting)
You would think that, but I've been working on systems to produce far more while consuming far less.
http://imgur.com/TOgCX.jpg [imgur.com]
As another example, an acre of barley grass takes about 100,000 gallons of water to produce on regular land, and about two weeks for usable animal fodder harvest. Newer systems I work on cut that down to about 1500 gallons, it happens in 7 days, and we don't even need ANY source of light. We grow it in completely dark sheds.
http://imgur.com/TYJUR.jpg [imgur.com]
And we have these already in production for growing biofuel-producing algae, so your assumption would be somewhat wrong. The Middle East is one of my bigger clients.
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on a gram by gram basis Corella Algae is actually like SUPER nutritious. NASA i think experimented with using it for long space flights in the 60/70's. So your body can function longer running on a tomato-sized amount of algae than it could on an actual tomato.
Ancient alien conspirators actually believe that the Holy Grail was actually a Manna Machine that produced this kind of algae. Fun Fact..
kinda skimmed the article but i think hes getting at the idea that it's a good supplement and could have potential
Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef (Score:4, Interesting)
To some extent same goes for other algae, they've got lots of nutritional value, but you have to be mindful that they are used medicinally for a reason.
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Ancient alien conspirators actually believe that the Holy Grail was actually a Manna Machine that produced this kind of algae
They also believe the Ark of the Covenant [wikipedia.org] was a radioactive energy source of some type which powered the Manna Machine. Interestingly enough, the descriptions available do describe, if you want to liberally interpret the readings, a high energy weapon (gamma + laser beam or something) with radiation sickness; including for those who might open the Ark.
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So, you just stuff one more tank under your bed, and grow those bacteria there ;)
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It depends on the type of algae. For instance, macroalgae (such as seaweeds) are pretty much similar to any other kind of plant, in that the cellulose portion of it whistles straight out of your exhaust-pipe unless you happen to be a goat, which has bacteria secreting cellulase in his rumen.
Lots of phytoplankton are pretty much digestible, though I guess diatoms (which ha
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That must be one heck of a balcony [wordpress.com].
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I have made no money with my own "victory garden". However, I have managed to produce small quantity of items that I can't get in sufficient quality at my local green grocer.
I think this algae idea is totally bonkers.
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You let them run your country...
Urine? (Score:2, Insightful)
Does this article really suggest feeding algae urine and then using it as a food product?
Re:Urine? (Score:5, Insightful)
You do understand that in many places normal food crops are still fertilized by feces?
Re:Urine? (Score:5, Informative)
Dealing with the leftovers of sewage treatment is so much more cost effective when they can be classified as fertilizer. Luckily, absolutely nobody would dream of dumping heavy metals or some of the nastier organics into the general sewage system, so soil application is entirely safe...
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The rest of us would pay that much not to have a marsh of human waste in our backyards.
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Feces are pathogenic unless very carefully composted. Urine is sterile right out of the tap.
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Well, unless you happen to have a bladder infection at the moment, then perhaps not.
Re:Urine? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sterile, sure, but with all the prescriptions we are on here in the developed world... not necessarily free from extras.
Re:Urine? (Score:5, Funny)
You'll have some very happy depression-free and horny little soil microbes, then? That's a good thing, right?
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It's got what microbes crave!
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Sterile, sure, but with all the prescriptions we are on here in the developed world... not necessarily free from extras.
Well the good news is that if they're on Viagra the urine ends up on the wall instead of in the bowl...
Re:Urine? (Score:4, Interesting)
You might want to consider all the hormones and/or pharmaceuticals in it. "Sterile" does not necessarily mean "desirable".
Re:Urine? (Score:5, Informative)
You do understand that in many places normal food crops are still fertilized by feces?
But....
The use of human feces as fertilizer is a risky practice as it may contain disease-causing pathogens and because it contains heavy metals. Nevertheless, in developing nations it is widespread. Common parasitic worm infections, such as ascariasis, in these countries are linked to night soil, since their eggs are in feces. Night soil [wikipedia.org]
Nearly 2.2 million people die each year because of diarrhea-related diseases, including cholera, according to WHO statistics. More than 80 percent of those cases can be attributed to contact with contaminated water and a lack of proper sanitation. Human Waste Used by 200 Million Farmers, Study Says [nationalgeographic.com]
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Yea, i usually just crap hard rock. Maybe that's why my parents thought my music in the 80s sounded like shit?
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A quick show of hands, who's ever pissed on a lemon tree?
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Everything you eat and drink was once pissed or shit out of something else. That's why you can't dump chemicals into the environment without eventually experiencing the consequences. [msn.com]
The further up the food chain you go, the more concentrated the toxins become. I suspect that's one of the reason's we're all dying of cancer.
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Nope. We are all dying of cancer because we now live long enough to get cancer.
If you don't want to die from cancer, I suggest that you move to a preindustrial society so you can die in your 30s or 40s from some other cause like malnutrition or disease.
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You can probably explain that with at TOTAL LACK OF NATURAL SELECTION.
In pre-industrial societies you're still lucky to make it to 13.
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Chance. Some proportion of the population always got cancer at age 13. It's probably higher now, because fewer children die before they get to 13 (it wasn't so long ago that you'd have been considered an adult at that age and expect to be thinking about getting married soon).
Cancer is one of those things that's related to a trade off in terms of evolution. The higher the mutation rate in a species, the faster it can adapt to changes in its environment, but the more likely it is to die of cancer. In r
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Tell that to the little critters in there who don't care for smell of secondhand garlic and tuna.
Does mold count? (Score:4, Funny)
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You are a credit to mankind.
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make sure your mold is not Monsanto-copyrighted.
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But I only planted non-Monsanto mould, that other stuff must have blown across the fence from my neighboors curtain!
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Add algae to that and you'll have a space-hardy lifeform that you can fry up like potato chips but waaay healthier. Crispy!
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Its been raised as an issue with rainwater tanks where I live. The solution seems to be to have a grid of fly wire over all large openings so that the mozzies can't get in and out.
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What on earth is "fly wire"? Try googling it.
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Wire to keep flies out. You don't have a fly wire door on your house? It must be full of flies.
(its an Australianism, like hats with corks swinging from the brim).
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Of course we have it. Yanks call it "screen."
I like the term "fly wire" though. It's very descriptive for what it does.
We don't, however, have the hats with the corks unless we brought it back from a trip Down Under.
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We need finer "screen" than the stuff we typically use on windows here, though. I've seen motivated mosquitoes squeeze through the stuff. For growing algae, I'd want something almost as fine as cheesecloth. Fungus gnats are another potential huge problem, as I suspect they might settle for algae, and they're smaller than mosquitoes.
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Okay, we call it "screen" or "screening" here in the U.S., as in "screen door". See my reply to the other fella regarding characteristics.
What's up with the corks?
flywire (Score:2)
one word. I also put "mosquitos" after it.
Re:Skeeters control? (Score:4, Informative)
In commercial algae growth, the water is not standing, it is agitated. For home algae growth you may not use an agitator, but I imagine at the least you would use an air bubbler like in fish tanks to keep things mixed. And of course, by screening any openings the mosquitoes can't get in to lay eggs.
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They're also great at eliminating your frog shit shortfall at the same time they boost your frog urine reserves. Bloody useful creatures, frogs.
self defeating business plan (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow I think this business is it's own worst enemy. Perhaps they should omit that little part of the plan, at least until they start making some progress with the rest. How could they think this was a good way to promote a new food source?
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you just know someone is going to do this (Score:2)
Re:self defeating business plan (Score:5, Interesting)
It's put in the summary for shock value I think, but really what they need is mainly nitrogen (prevalent in fertilizer and also urine) and carbon dioxide. In one of their experiments they fed the algae exhaust from a generator. They could also be fed agricultural runoff rich in fertilizers, which is a problem when it reaches streams and oceans because it is so nutritious for algae that it produces algal blooms.
I'm sure you could feed your algae off of a bag of fertilizer from home depot, it's just like gardening but in water.
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Urine is sterile. What's the big deal? I piss in the shower all the time and don't even aim for the drain, and I'm just as healthy as anybody who doesn't.
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Uh huh. Are you pointing your dick up and drinking it in the shower? Capturing the showering water to make Mac N Cheese?
"Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but that don't mean I'll eat the mother fuckers"
I'll take your word for it that it is in fact sterile, but disagree (along with most of the planet) that it is an acceptable culinary ingredient.
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Past my first sentence it was mostly just literary license for fun....
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It's better than the truth: soylent green is people.
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Grow two tanks. One fed urine and one fed composted urine fed algae. Extend as many degrees as needed to lose the ick factor.
Holy cunnilingus, Batman! (Score:5, Funny)
We'd be like the Linux of algae – do-it-yourself with low-cost materials and shared information.' And one of the low-cost materials is your household urine.
So, like I start going down on the bitch, and complain that she tastes like algae and household urine. And then she quips, "But it runs Linux!"
Can't argue with that . . .
This sounds like... (Score:2)
... a great way to give yourself the shits in whole new and exciting ways previously unknown to mankind.
It's cryptosporidi-yummy!
Is progress that makes life worse really progress? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is shooting yourself in the head to avoid a pointless and severely unpleasant (but "sustainable") existence in a dystopian ecologically green world "the future"? Can we deprive ourselves of everything good about life so our children can inherit a world where they'll also have to deprive themselves of everything good about life? Is this wise?
Why wouldn't we choose to strive for a good outcome rather than the worst possible outcome where we all (sort-of) survive?
Do you have the blueprints to the Discovery Channel building?
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Food is only a small part of enjoyment. Our children in this dystopia will see food eating as a mundane but necessary task like drinking water and will focus on all the other joys of life instead.
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Like driving or flying to a nice vacation spot? Nope.
Like reclining in air conditioned comfort of their spacious homes? Nope and nope.
There's nothing good about life that extreme environmentalists wouldn't frown on.
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Who gives a shit what extreme anybody thinks, it doesn't mean you don't have to worry about sustainable alternatives because you don't agree with some whack that wants you to sit on your hands all day. Sounds like a convenient excuse to do whatever you want because the extreme opposition is 'wrong'.
Doing whatever I want? You mean like a free person in a free society? That's a subversive idea you have there. I can see why you posted it anonymously.
Extreme environmentalists aren't really into letting you choose whether you care about what they think. They demand obedience to their enlightened authority.
Re:Is progress that makes life worse really progre (Score:5, Funny)
We could use extreme environmentalists as fuel. Since most of them are also vegetarian, they'd even be carbon-neutral!
Re:Is progress that makes life worse really progre (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are of the optimistic "steady-state-or-even-better" school, giving up long hot showers, giant pieces of perfectly cooked cow corpse, and 85 degree buildings all winter for its own sake is a rather curious and masochistic hobby. Fine if that is your thing; but not really for general consumption, much less compulsory introduction.
The great utility of "worse progress" comes in the event of some sort of nasty supply shock. The basic problem is this: "progress"(R&D, engineering, building infrastructure, educating people, etc.) requires that a civilization be able to run a surplus in energy, food, and other useful materials. If civilization falls short of that, it generally falls back on eating its own infrastructure to survive(just consider the amount of european masonry that was just pilfered from roman stuff; because that was easier than mining it, and they couldn't make concrete anymore). Worst case, you not only get infrastructure degradation(both material and human capital) from lack of maintenance and training; but further destruction as people fight over the scraps.
In our case, hydrocarbons have essentially allowed us to, for the past century or two, run massive surpluses. If we have to get off that particular train, we have to hope that the fusion/solar/orbiting microwave satellite/thorium breeder reactor/etc. guys have it together by that time, or things are going to get ugly. The nightmare scenario is that we lose the ability to run surpluses before we perfect the next energy source. If that happens, we might never have another shot at it. "Worse" technologies have the potential to be a useful delaying tactic, allowing us to run an R&D and infrastructure construction surplus long enough to get something else in place. Also handy in extreme environments, like space colonies or antarctic bases or what have you.
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Yeah, but this article isn't about some sort of apocalyptic struggle against extinction. He wants you to start growing this stuff with your urine right now.
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Like anything else, it's a first step. The first internal combustion engines didn't put out 320 HP, either. It'll take time for new iterations to evolve it into a better product than this guy is pitching. And getting it started now is the only way to get those next iterations going.
Those potential improvements would include not only the size and energy input types of things, but improvements to the palatability of the finished product. I'm not saying that they'll ever produce a steak-like substance with
Re:Is progress that makes life worse really progre (Score:4, Insightful)
More to the point, in this case, the chap in TFA sounds optimistic to the point of utopian. He isn't railing about the imminent demise of all Haber-Process based agriculture, he is geeking out about the second coming of the vegetable garden. Given the percentage of the American population that basically lives on things that food chemists can turn corn into, and the percentage of the world population that spends a lot of time not actually eating, he is (arguably) proposing progress in line with your definition.
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Fortunately, there is enough easily accessible uranium in the Earth's crust to power civilization for tens of thousands of years. Modern nuclear plant designs are incredibly safe, and the French have proved that spent fuel reprocessing can be done quite efficiently. If there's a true civilization-ending energy crisis ahead, we have a LONG time to work on it. For now, the main issue is improving battery/fuel cell technology so that electricity generated by nuclear reactors can be used for transportation.
That
I'm not optimistic, but... (Score:2)
I'd love for there to be some sort of automatic control system that takes measurements and makes optimal adjustments in titration, temperature, etc. I imagine that this would potentially be a cheap part with a USB plug. But even with this, who will invite people to their house for algae and crackers? And when guests ask for the bathroom, the answer is "Are you sure you don't want to just fertilize the algae? Anyway, want more crackers?"
I think that here is a case where the hippies really have it wrong. If
DIY? (Score:2)
Abstinence really is the best policy (Score:2)
I'm already doing this simply by abstaining from cleaning my toilet bowl. I haven't figured out the harvesting phase yet, though.
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No, that would be my toilet bowl... if algae is dirty.
Accidental agriculture... (Score:5, Funny)
Make it taste good first (Score:3, Interesting)
The reason people don't eat algae is that it tastes bad. The author himself says he can only eat 15 grams a day, which comes to about 60 calories. Gee, that's only 3% of his daily energy needs. Now, if he could splice in some genes to make his spirulina taste like beef or chicken, he'd have a lot more success.
Personally, I'd like it if somebody worked on engineering trees instead. A tree growing potatoes with sugarcane's photosynthesis efficiency could feed the world.
Re:Make it taste good first (Score:5, Interesting)
I think growing a maple tree or two in the back yard and tapping them would produce about the same amount of calories he's taking in, with a lot less maintenance, and much better tasting product.
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I seriously doubt he's eating it for the calories. Spirulina is high in a bunch of useful nutrients [wikipedia.org]. Have fun eating nothing but potatoes. Personally, I like to get a little something that isn't starch in my diet.
Hoo boy (Score:3, Funny)
We'd be like the Linux of algae
So they're going to grow algae in their neckbeards?
DIY Soylent Green (Score:2)
Home Brew (Score:2)
It looks remarkably like a home-brew setup for making moonshine. Probably would have a similar future too - only dedicated enthusiasts would take it up, as big business can do it more economically on a larger scale, and if it did take off it would be made illegal and/or heavily taxed to make sure the government gets its cut.
Welcome to Trantor (Score:5, Interesting)
Asimov predicted this decades ago [wikipedia.org]. Just another case of science catching up to fiction, or perhaps this just validates the theories of psychohistory that we aren't supposed to know about..
Of course, there's a long way to go before we generate enough recipes and concoctions of artificial ingredients to make it palatable, so that it's economically and socially mandated to create massive bio-farms.
For more information, refer to your copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica.
No! Not this, please! (Score:4, Informative)
The is kind of why flying cars and jet packs, although feasible, haven't really taken off, pardon the pun. Drivers can barely manage turn signals let alone handle a third dimenson. People poison themselves with DIY alcohol brewing, preserves and curing gone wrong quite frequently.
Anyone considered the disposal implications here? Many local governments would not allow you to dump this stuff via sewer or storm water.
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"People poison themselves with DIY alcohol brewing, preserves and curing gone wrong quite frequently. "
Really? What toxins are produced by fermentation? How are these toxins magnified/added/altered by distillation?
Methanol - not a product of yeast fermentation but anaerobic bacteria will produce it - may be encountered in fermentations gone wrong.
Amygdayn [wikipedia.org] not a product of the fermentation, but present in the kernel of some fruits that are being used in preparing brandy. Dissolves in alcohol (resulted from fermentation): dangerous in high concentration, as one of the (enzyme catalyzed) decomposition path leads to hydrogen cyanide [wikipedia.org].
(these two I know about as risks associated with DYI plum-brandy).
Not Really Open-Source (Score:5, Insightful)
These guys claim to be "Open-Source" but when you go to their website [algaelab.org] they want you to come to California and pay $150 for a seminar to learn from them. No designs or instruction available for free.
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Sigh (Score:5, Funny)
We'd be like the Linux of algae
I'll be right here waiting for the year of Algae on the Rooftop.
Re:Look further (Score:4, Funny)
And yes, I was under the influence of something else that was green when I thought that'd be a good idea.
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So you're suggesting we evolve to become lichen, then? Brilliant. Even survives in space, as noted recently, so we can ramp up the space program again with significant savings. Good luck gettin' your groove on at that stage, though.