Can we engineer life? 4.6 Golden rice

Golden rice symbolizes the protracted trench war between proponents and opponents of modern biotechnology. The Swiss Ingo Potrykus of ETH Zürich is the golden man behind the golden rice. With great ardour he defends this controversial rice, and attacks the … Read more

Recycling end-of-life tyres

end-of-life tyres

Every year, around a billion scrap tyres reach the end of their useful lives around the world. Many of these end-of-life tyres end up clogging landfills, providing breeding grounds for pests and becoming a threat to the environment. With innovative … Read more

Innovation is ‘Chefsache’

At the end of May I visited a ‘Green Deal’ network meeting in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. The meeting itself wasn’t really interesting, but it was organized at a nice location, I met a number of interesting people during the drinks … Read more

We proudly present… More with Less

For us, April 21st was a day to remember. A month ahead of schedule we presented our new book: More with Less, welcome to the Precision Economy. The scene was a conference in Groningen where the latest results of modern … Read more

Energy storage, its role in the transition

In many discussions on sustainable energy, energy storage is a controversial issue. Particularly non-experts use the lack of simple storage technologies as an unanswerable remark: all nice and well, sustainable energy, but as long as a day without sunshine leaves … Read more

SynBio is gearing up

SynBio

Synthetic Biology (SynBio) includes a large field of applications. Within this area biochemists combine engineering concepts and techniques with biology to design new genes that produce a specific protein. When this protein is an enzyme, bacteria and yeast in which … Read more

A rich harvest on genetic technology

Within one month, three reports about genetic technology in crops. And on top of that, a trend analysis for the entire biotechnology, one month before. All four of them downloadable and very readable. I will shortly review them here. Genetic … Read more

Vertical farming

Vertical farming is making headway into modern cities. Fresh produce being a unique selling point for vegetables, we will see more production units coming close to the customer. Vertical production units to be sure, often in old buildings and LED … Read more

We need genetic engineering

I devoted many words already to the advantages of genetic engineering. On paper, in the form of books and columns, as a speaker at schools, congresses, women’s associations, service clubs, and in churches, libraries, in short when and where I … Read more

Photanol prepares itself for the market

Photanol, based in Amsterdam, has started tests in greenhouses at Bleiswijk (Nl), where cyanobacteria will produce fragrances and flavourings, and intermediates for the chemical industry, with no other feedstock than CO2 and sunlight. Dirk den Ouden, director at Photanol, gives … Read more

Welcome to the age of CRISPR

Genetic modification is not a new technology. But a new tool, CRISPR, now elevates it to a much higher level. And op top of that, genetic modification is in the course of a rapid automation. This allows us to change … Read more