
J. Craig Venter’s Corporate Strategy? The Scientific Method - da5e
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05venter.html?hpw
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zeteo
Producing globally significant amounts of biofuel (either from algae, as
Venter attempts, or from other plants) is a terribly difficult endeavor. The
world's yearly fossil fuel consumption is about 12 TW of energy; at the same
time, the entire biosphere currently fixes about 55-60 TW / year into plant
matter [1]. Thus, the biofuel-producing plants would have to amount to about
20% of the Earth's biosphere in order to completely replace our consumption of
fossil fuels (assuming this consumption doesn't increase). This is a gigantic
task, which would require extreme global effort (if it is at all feasible).

[1] "Global catastrophes and trends" V. Smil, MIT 2008, p. 83

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equark
Is anybody here doing a startup of this ilk? Or is it web apps all the time?

