synthetic

To make a new kind of display, researchers have engineered bacteria to be brighter.

The University of California at San Diego last month detailed the latest advances toward making a lighting system powered by genetically engineered e. coli bacteria.

Bioengineers insert a protein that causes the bacteria to fluoresce. Assembled in colonies, these bacteria act as a light source, like the pixel on a screen. About 500 individual bacteria are assembled into colonies, or "biopixels."

Those biopixels were engineered as components in larger circuits to make a display with as many as 13,000 biopixels.

The hope is … Read more

Rather than recycling plastic, startup Agilyx can bring plastic back to its original source: oil.

The Beaverton, Ore., company yesterday raised $25 million in a series C round of funding, which was led by Keating Capital and joined by existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Waste Management, an affiliate of oil company Total, and Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital.

The company, which raised $22 million in March this year, will use the money to develop four plastic-to-oil plants expected to go online in the first half of next year, according to CEO Chris Ulum. Agilyx is now operating its first … Read more

In this week's episode, we answer your questions on car alarms, bluetooth audio streaming, and what is synthetic oil?

• LOLcars (photos)

• Coasting Prohibited

• Audi MMI

Amyris announced today a contract manufacturing deal to make specialty chemicals from sugar cane in Brazil, marking the first time the chemical and biofuels company will produce at industrial scale.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based company has contracted with Biomin do BrasilNiutrciao to use its facilities to manufacture a chemical called farnesene, which is used for cosmetic products and lubricants. Production is slated to begin next month.

Amyris will supply sugar cane syrup and fermentation equipment while Biomin will operate the plant, an arrangement that allows Amyris to begin production at commercial scale quicker than building its own facilities, said Jeri Hilleman, the company's chief financial officer.

Through a joint venture, Amyris is in the process of building its own facility in Brazil, which will take 18 months (and is scheduled for completion next year), while the deal with Biomin took about six months and relatively little capital, Hilleman said. Amyris has other contract manufacturing arrangements in Europe and the U.S. … Read more

If you don't like broad patents on potentially world-changing scientific developments like scientific genomes, well, then, build your own! Also, does the $97 iPhone 3GS mean the 4G model will be on sale at launch? And we find out why five inches just isn't enough. Sorry.

We have synthetic life! Craig Venter's new bacterium is alive and is blue... because that's what it's programmed to be. Also, Google says Happy 30th Birthday Pacman by putting a playable game into the Google banner. Tech support calls ensue.

An Air Force Thunderbolt jet took to the skies Thursday powered with help of a synthetic substitute made with animal fats and plant oil.

The A-10C Thunderbolt II lifted off for its demo flight from the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida with its tanks filled with a 50-50 blend of synthetic Hydrotreated Renewable Jet fuel, or HRJ, and JP-8, a traditional jet propellant, according to the Air Force Web site. The flight marked the first demo to determine the feasibility of using synthetic fuel in Air Force jets.

The test flight marked one of the key initiatives on the … Read more

Biofuel start-up LS9 and California researchers on Wednesday claimed a breakthrough in converting non-food biomass into biodiesel using a genetically modified form of e. coli bacteria.

The research, done with the University of California at Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), is a step toward lowering the cost of making biodiesel from wood chips, corn stover, and other residual agricultural products. The group published its results in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

LS9 is one of a handful of U.S. synthetic biology companies that are manipulating microorganisms to convert plants into liquid … Read more

Start-up Joule Biotechnologies is sort of a mashup of the fuels, solar, and biotechnology industries.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company on Monday is disclosing its technology and business plans for making ethanol and other liquid fuels from genetically manipulated microorganisms that have been fed only sunlight and carbon dioxide.

In a break with biofuels companies, Joule says its HelioCulture system works without a biomass feedstock, such as algae or others plants. Instead, the company's engineered organisms grow through photosynthesis in a brackish water solution and directly excrete fuel or commercial chemicals.

"We set out in sort of a '… Read more