The Bottomless Well: Bio-Production and The Future Of Energy

In 2006, Peter Huber published his important work, The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy.

The description on the flap declares, 

"The things we think we know (about energy) are mostly myths. A better understanding of energy will radically change our views and policies on a number of very controversial issues. In The Bottomless Well, Huber and Mills show why energy is not scarce, why the price of energy doesn't matter very much, and why "waste" of energy is both necessary and desirable. Across the board, energy isn't the problem; energy is the solution."

Leftists have coined the phrases "Fossil Fuels" and "Renewable Energy" to create the illusion that we will one day run out of Oil. 

But, running out of oil will never be a problem for the human race, because if we ever run out of fossilized Dinosaurs (and yes, that is a joke), we will simply pull it out of our asses:

Scientists at LS9, a Silicon Valley research firm, have been experimenting with this unlikely source of energy.  The scientists have learned that with some genetic alteration, a beaker of ‘bug excretion’ can contain pure oil. 

Indeed, Scientists are now taking the first steps towards learning how to create more specific and productive oil-pooping bugs, animals, and vegetation:

The team's method can be compared to understanding both the chemical reactions and the machinery that are required to refine crude oil into petrol in a large, industrial factory. Modeling metabolism tells you what biochemical reactions need to take place. 

Modeling the organism's gene expression tells you what kind of machinery you need. The team's method specifically accounts for the expression of enzymes, which are the molecular machines responsible for the biochemical processes of life. With this knowledge, it is possible to explore how an organism distributes its resources to promote growth and how genetic manipulation of these organisms alters this distribution. _SD

This new approach devised by UCSD researchers is likely to expedite the creation of biological organisms capable of producing high volumes of fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc. in a fast and profitable manner.  

Moreover, through in silico comparative transcriptomics, the model allows the discovery of new regulons and improving the genome and transcription unit annotations. Our method presents a framework for investigating molecular biology and cellular physiology in silico and may allow quantitative interpretation of multi-omics data sets in the context of an integrated biochemical description of an organism. 

_NatureCommunications 

Moreover, through in silico comparative transcriptomics, the model allows the discovery of new regulons and improving the genome and transcription unit annotations. Our method presents a framework for investigating molecular biology and cellular physiology in silico and may allow quantitative interpretation of multi-omics data sets in the context of an integrated biochemical description of an organism. 

_NatureCommunications

Nature Communications 3, Article number: 929 doi:10.1038/ncomms1928
UCSD researchers have taken an important step toward the general ability to custom design the genome of organisms, in order to produce synthetic fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, on a commercial scale.

A biochemically accurate model of molecular biology and metabolism will facilitate comprehensive and quantitative computations of an organism's molecular constitution as a function of genetic and environmental parameters. Here we formulate a model of metabolism and macromolecular expression. Prototyping it using the simple microorganism Thermotoga maritima, we show our model accurately simulates variations in cellular composition and gene expression.

"What you could hypothetically do with our model is simulate the total cost of producing a value-added product, such as a biofuel. That includes all the operating and maintenance costs," said Daniel Hyduke, a project scientist in Palsson's lab. Hyduke said the method has the potential to help streamline industrial metabolic engineering efforts by providing a near complete accounting of the minimal material and energy costs associated with novel strain designs for biofuel, commodity chemicals, and recombinant protein production.

In the future, I picture, we will have giant farms of Leftist assholes genetically-optimized to secrete billions of barrels of oil rather than billions of pages of new taxes. 

Forward.