Synthetic Biology
Viewpoint: Guilt-tripping kids about meat consumption? Rancher mom challenges view that cell-based meat is preferable to real thing
In the latest issue of this paid subscription publication that goes to 250,000 schools across the United States, Junior Scholastic ...
The Fate of Food review: How technology will shape food of the future
To take a look at what the future of food might look like, we talked to experts to come up ...
Precision fermentation: New genetic modification process could make anything from fossil-free biofuels to animal-free milk and cow-free cheese
Known as precision fermentation, the process is a hot topic because it can be used to make anything from fossil-free ...
Renewable bioplastics offer sustainable alternative to petroleum-based products
Most plastics today come from petroleum. About three-quarters of every barrel of oil goes to make gasoline, diesel and jet ...
Plant microbiome: Key to weaning agriculture off chemical inputs?
All plants interact with bacteria and fungi in the soil. Some plants are especially good at it. Understanding what drives ...
Growing cell-based meat in space? If humans travel intergallactic distances or colonize planets, this is how we might feed ourselves
Growing meat from cells - particularly at scale - even on Earth isn't easy. Aleph Farms is one of several ...
Viewpoint: Is cell-based meat oversold as a sustainability solution?
A new report by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems critiques the growing trend of alternative proteins. By promising a more ...
The perfect wine? Biotechnology poised to upend ancient craft of winemaking
Winemakers have come to realize that there are many different strains of yeast (and even bacteria) at play that enhance ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotechnology activists claim Western corporations ‘colonize’ the developing world. Here’s why they are wrong
Today, many scientific discussions are shot through with social justice rhetoric, and the debate over food security in the developing world ...
Viewpoint: Politics and scientifically outdated anti-GMO sentiment undermines Europe’s regulatory lab-grown food embrace
The precision fermentation landscape is somewhat unbalanced. While the US and Europe both boast a growing number of start-ups working ...
Artificial wombs: The coming era of motherless births?
Scientifically, it’s called ectogenesis, a term coined by J.B.S. Haldane in 1924. The technology is on its way. How will ...
New Zealand’s two-decade, scientifically-outdated GMO ban under criticism as global technology advances
There’s a hole in the wall keeping genetically modified organisms out of New Zealand and it’s shaped like an impossible ...
Climate-friendly synthetic meat and eggs on the menu in China’s 5-year food security independence plan
For the first time, China’s most recent Five-Year Plan for Agriculture, published in January, includes references to cultivated meat and other ...
Is lab-grown food ‘Frankenstein stuff’? Biggest challenge is not ‘food fears’ or consumer resistance, but scale and cost
Remilk, founded in 2019, is producing the key functional ingredients of milk using a yeast-based fermentation process. Yeast normally produces ...
‘Meat the Future’: Jane Goodall-narrated documentary explores future of cell-grown ‘clean meat’
In Meat the Future, streaming on most major platforms starting this week, we meet a team of scientists led by cardiac ...
What are acetogens? And how could synthetic biology turn oil, coal and other fossil fuels into green, carbon-negative chemicals?
When most people hear about oil, as in petroleum, they think of what gets refined to produce gasoline. But it’s ...
Giraffe meat? Bengal tiger burgers? Start-up using cell cultures to create exotic new tastes without harming animals
Cultivated meat companies most frequently focus on the largest meat categories- beef, chicken and pork. However, Primeval Foods has stepped ...
Mushroom handbags? Synthetic biology is expanding into the fashion industry
The fashion industry’s expectations are particularly high. “Nobody is willing to sacrifice quality and performance for sustainability,” says Matt Scullin, ...
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In the near future, maybe neither
Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? This eternally-confounding question now has an answer—that is, if just the egg ...
Will plant based meat alternatives curb the greenhouse gas impact of animal agriculture? This independent study concludes consumers are key
New plant-based meat (PBM) alternatives that aim to mimic the taste and texture of beef could have significant economic, environmental, ...
Is there a better way to make cell-based meat? Maybe the tobacco plant can help
FoodTech start-up, BioBetter, has assigned a new role for the much-maligned Nicotiana tabacum plant upon discovering it can overcome the greatest hurdle ...
Future of food: Cell-based protein key to ensure sustainability of our global food supply
A 2018 meta-analysis estimated that food production releases more than one-quarter of all human-caused greenhouse gases and that agricultural irrigation accounts ...
The Netherlands positions itself to become Silicon Valley of cultured meat
The Dutch government has approved cultured meat tastings in the Netherlands for the first time, in a move local industry ...
Viewpoint: Is cell-based meat science or a billion-dollar con?
Almost a decade since the unveiling of the first lab-grown burger, no business has been able to make it commercially ...
Sustainable seafood? This company believes it can make tasty vegan fish from plants and cultivated cells
One-third of the world’s tuna stocks are now fished at unsustainable levels, according to the most recent State of the ...
Increasing yields without genetic modification? A bio-spray that silences plant genes is in the works
The use of bioactive molecules has shown the capability to infiltrate into plant leaves and into the cells themselves with ...
Viewpoint: The messy details of how lab-grown meat is made
Lab meat—flesh grown in massive tanks instead of in the bodies of sentient animals—offers the promise of having our steak ...