PHAs are versatile, biodegradable and promising, we wrote a few years ago. There was just one problem: they were not competitive. So demand didn’t develop. And therefore, they remained not competitive. Gradually however, this vicious circle is being broken. PHAs … Read more
Bio is in. Chemistry is out. Green is in. Grey is out. And the Netherlands (my home country) should rid itself from its dependence on natural gas. These are popular opinions in ‘climate conscious’ circles. Yet there are ‘chemical’ processes … Read more
It its latest report, Boston-based Lux Research investigates a global and sustainable energy infrastructure. Can areas with high energy demand but not endowed with much domestic wind and solar energy become self-sufficient? Or will they need to import sustainably sourced … Read more
The Waltzing with Nature manifesto is a logical sequel to the recent books by the authors, Alle Bruggink and Diederik van der Hoeven. Particularly to their latest book Naturally! Of course. How nature keeps surprising us (in Dutch). A surprising … Read more
By the end of 2019, both USA and EU became aware of their dependence on China and India in generic medicines supply. Particularly the dependence on China was judged to be worrisome, as their share doubled to 13% in ten … Read more
The major pharmaceutical industry is going through a difficult time. Industry should find a new track. Biomedicines could open up a new chapter. This is the third of four articles on the pharmaceutical industry. Biomedicines, yes or no? For over … Read more
The major pharmaceutical industry (big pharma) is going through a difficult time. Industry needs to come on track again. Can the new superpowers India and China lead the way? This is the second of four articles on the pharmaceutical industry. … Read more
Major pharmaceutical companies (big pharma) are having a difficult time. Shareholders complain about falling profit margins; governments, insurance companies and patients complain about sky-high medicine prices. Industry should find a new direction – but which one? This is the first … Read more
Sustainable biomass is a subject dominated by strong and enduring disagreement. Michael Moore’s latest film Planet of the Humans is a recent reminder of that. In the Netherlands, always looking for consensus, the government now tries to develop a ‘widely … Read more
In the 100th year of his life, James Lovelock wrote an important book: Novacene, The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence. A book that astonishes by the broad view of the author. And that calls for dissent through its consequent logic. A … Read more
Will the corona pandemic speed up the energy transition? The question is much debated. Those who would like to accelerate the transition seem to have the upper hand, if we can judge by the headlines of the news. Fine particulate … Read more
Biobased Press published its manifesto ‘Waltzing with Nature’ on May 1, 2020. In this manifesto, we testify to the importance of science for solving mankind’s major global problems. Like global heating, plastic littering everywhere, insect decline, nutritional diseases because … Read more
Frances Arnold won the 2018 chemistry Nobel prize for her research on directed evolution. Directed evolution speeds up nature’s variation and selection process, and researchers use it to find the best enzymes for industrial applications. As Arnold summed it up: … Read more
Reductions in resource use, emissions, and waste production are key strategies for corporate success. Sustainability is crucial, says Lux Research, a Boston-based technology development and advisory company. Sustainability is crucial For a long time, the business community has belittled sustainability. … Read more
Recently, Knowable Magazine devoted an article to the question how far conventional agriculture is on the way to becoming more sustainable. The problem is: conventional agriculture pollutes too much (fertilizer runoff, toxic pesticides). But organic agriculture produces too little, meaning … Read more
Quietly, industry is perfecting the art of using mycelium as a construction material. Mycelium is the invisible part of mushrooms: their ‘roots’ that consist of minuscule threads called hyphae. There is just one disadvantage to mycelium as a construction material: … Read more
Crises are an opportunity to review our present structures and habits; and to create new ones. Many observers judge that we wasted the 2008 financial crisis: the mechanisms that caused this crisis were largely restored afterwards. Will we wisely use … Read more
Whereas the artificial hamburger has been launched with a lot of fuss a few years ago, artificial seafood has been developed in relative quiet. But it may come to the market much sooner. Texture and taste seem to be good, … Read more
At present, the world is under the spell of a new influenza virus, Covid-19. One region after another goes into complete lockdown; in particular to prevent the virus to spread with such speed that hospitals would be overburdened. The virus … Read more
Chemical and Engineering News recently ran an article that sheds light on the importance of traditional Chinese medicine for modern scientific development. Traditional treatments inspire the discovery of insecticides and antimalarial drugs. Useful symbiotic microorganisms The herb Stemona sessilifolia has … Read more
Last month, Chemical and Engineering News devoted an article to biobased aromatics: aromatic compounds derived from biobased resources. Much is going on here. This developing sector holds the promise that it will be able to produce aromatic compounds cheaper than … Read more
As plastic waste can now be found in the remotest areas of the Earth, plastic recycling becomes urgent. We know that biodegradable plastics are a niche solution, so we need to organize and implement recycling of non-degradable plastics fast now. … Read more
The decline of insects has been well established now. It concerns both their abundance and their diversity, and spans all continents. If they decline even more, we will run into unknown risks, because we depend on them in many ways, … Read more
A publication in Science last year triggered a debate: can we stop climate change by planting billions of trees? These trees would capture CO2 and in so doing, save the earth from overheating. Indeed: trees planted in sufficient numbers could … Read more
Plastics in the Circular Economy are hot. The last EFIB-conference in October 2019 featured a track dedicated to ‘The future of plastics’. The last edition of Dutch magazine Agro&Chemie also featured an article on bio-plastics. And the recently announced European … Read more
Figures on global 2019 climate have come in and global warming does not seem to slow down. Many new records were set, like that on ocean water temperatures. That 2019 is not the hottest year on record is only due … Read more
The report The better job (in Dutch) by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is ground-breaking. For the first time in forty (!) years, there is attention for job quality in Dutch politics. A subject that had been … Read more
Reading the book Naturally! Of course. How nature always keeps surprising us (in Dutch) by Alle Bruggink and Diederik van der Hoeven was a great pleasure to me. Even stronger, I studied it with great interest. Almost all subjects have … Read more
By the end of last year, Dutch Rathenau Institute produced a thought-provoking report on the energy transition (in Dutch). We need artificial intelligence, sensors and other data applications in the energy transition, according to the report. Because we need to … Read more
Resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem; and yet, the development of new antibiotics stagnates. Why? Don’t we need new antibiotics, on second thoughts? Or does industry judge that new developments will not earn them enough money? New antibiotics from … Read more
The Conversation, that invaluable source of balanced information, ran an article on carbon storage in the soil. Potentially, one of our main instruments for controlling the rise of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. But present developments point the other way: … Read more
Antibiotics resistance of harmful organisms becomes a major problem – in agriculture, in human and veterinary medicine. Scientists now try to come up with new methods. They think that CRISPR (discovered less than 10 years ago) might be a solution. … Read more
Quickly, the world gets critical of plastic waste. It litters land, waterways and oceans. Until quite recently, rich countries could export their waste to poorer countries – for them to sort out the difficult tail of consumer society. But since … Read more
During a workshop at the latest European Forum on Industrial Biotechnology (EFIB) in Brussels, the BBI JU funded ReSolve-project introduced a number of newly developed, less hazardous, viable bio-based renewable solvents. These new solvent molecules proved to have better performance … Read more
Once upon a time, energy from biomass like wood, manure, whale oil and other sources was the primary supplier of heat, light and food processing. If we should like to contain climate change effectively, would we have to return to … Read more
When researchers discovered the CRISPR-Cas mechanism, it was looked upon as the perfect instrument for genetic modification (GM). But it appears to have its flaws. Flaws that might be inherent to life and to nature as such. This is a … Read more
Dutch primary education has a huge problem, that also affects bio-economy developments. There’s a substantial shortage of teachers, the teaching profession is not appreciated much, and the pay gap with secondary education is decently described by the sector as ‘not … Read more
When talking of technology, many people nowadays have ICT in mind. But then they neglect the major steps forward taken by the life sciences: all chemical and biological knowledge of living organisms. We keep discovering new phenomena. Naturally! Of course. … Read more
The Dutch Cabinet has determined missions to tackle major societal issues, and Dutch knowledge sectors are currently drawing up Knowledge and Innovation Agendas on how to support the realisation of these missions. I just finished reading the joint innovation agenda … Read more
Evolved by Nature has developed pure liquid silk; properly speaking: silk in solution. This substance will enable yarns to be covered with silk. They will then have the properties that lend such an exquisite quality to silk: soft on the … Read more
Last month, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation completed a series of reports on climate change with a strong message. Don’t just reduce emissions; restructure the economy as well, from a once-through wasteful economy to a circular economy. Or else, industry and … Read more
This month, NNFCC’s newsletter highlighted the launch of two biobased leather products. Isn’t all leather biobased then? Yes, but here we mean leather of vegetable origin. The synthetic leather market amounted to $ 26 billion in 2018 and is still … Read more
Michael Carus, managing director of the German nova-Institute, has stirred up the plastics debate. While plastic waste is piling up and the seas get filled with plastic soup, Carus makes a plea for the use of more plastics. A better … Read more
Most of the time we don’t realise it, but there is an antibiotic crisis going on. Our present families of antibiotics become less effective, and each year many people die from superbugs resistant to all medicines. Research now shows that … Read more
Reductionism, reducing issues to little fragments, is at the basis of our present wealth. It also has a major influence on our social behaviour and our worldview. This may take us quite a distance, but we may also lose the … Read more
Science rests on reductionism: the reduction of complex issues to digestible bits. From there, researchers try to piece together the bigger picture. But in the life sciences we now see a movement towards holism: the concept that life’s manifestations can … Read more
In Asia, banana leaves were always used for food packaging. But they quickly deteriorate. They have been overtaken by plastics, that now often clog the waterways and pollute the oceans. An young Indian inventor has managed to process banana leaves … Read more
Pesticide resistance is a brand new phenomenon, historically speaking. It was first reported in 1914, just a century ago. A result of chemical, and later biotechnological methods of pest control. And now already, pesticide resistance has evolved into an almost … Read more
Researchers do not apply genetic modification just to microorganisms and plants. Animals are genetically modified as well, we will treat this in the articles of Essay 5. With regards to plants, the entire process of regulation and acceptation is complicated … Read more
Am I mistaken, or is there really a gradual shift taking place among opinion leaders in favour of genetic modification? Or is it just my perception that changes? Meaning: do I see people who agree with me behind every corner … Read more