35 ms·

Making Protein Using Air, Water, Electricity, and Microbes

61 points by scribu 7y ago

dlhavema 7y ago
and microbes. Is it pure clickbait to leave off the most vital part of this reaction?
- dang 7y ago
  OK, we've added microbes to the title above. An Oxford comma too!
  - tuukkah 7y ago
    I wouldn't include the microbes in the list of ingredients since the process grows the microbes. I would suggest "Making Protein From Air, Water, and Electricity"
    - dang 7y ago
      We'll get even more complaints if we say 'from' instead of 'using'. Looking at the article it seems like the microbes predate the process?
      - tuukkah 7y ago
        Yes, but they are the "machine" (that doesn't deplete). The inputs are air, water and electricity just as the title says.
  - dlhavema 7y ago
    Hey cool. I mean basically everyone knew something else had to be involved. Thanks for the update. I didn't know how to include the oxford comma in my comment, but briefly considered how :)
acjohnson55 7y ago
Soylent Green is people!
ars 7y ago
"and fed with carbon dioxide and hydrogen bubbles" This is nonsense. Protein needs nitrogen. Maybe they get it from air, but I suspect this isn't real.
- tuukkah 7y ago
  It's real, but the marketing slogan doesn't include all the details mentioned here: "Their only ingredients are hydrogen-oxidising bacteria, electricity from solar panels, a small amount of water, carbon dioxide drawn from the air, nitrogen and trace quantities of minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium and zinc." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electric-food-sci-fi-diet-planet-food-animals-environment https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electr...
mlinksva 7y ago
Wonder how this production mechanism pencils out as a way to feed everyone for years without sun, i.e., relative to other options explored in https://www.appropedia.org/Feeding_Everyone_No_Matter_What https://www.appropedia.org/Feeding_Everyone_No_Matter_What
incompatible 7y ago
Duplicate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311235
- dang 7y ago
  On HN we only count a post as a duplicate if the story has had significant attention; that one maybe doesn't quite clear the bar.
FZ1 7y ago
You sort of missed the LIVING MICROBES part of the article. Which is where the uh, PROTEIN comes from ... smh ...
burlesona 7y ago
A much more detailed description can be found on the related opinion piece here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electric-food-sci-fi-diet-planet-food-animals-environment https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electr... The process involves using microbes seeded with a bunch of minerals in addition to the air, water, and electricity, so this headline oversimplifies things quite a bit. Meanwhile the opinion piece also makes the case for why anyone should care: in short, figuring out ways to grow food in radically less space - and in particular, using barren land (the article says sunny deserts would be ideal for this method) - is key to reversing significant environmental harm done by industrial agriculture. ^ that’s a summary of the opinion piece, I don’t have a lot of knowledge or opinion in this area.
tuukkah 7y ago
This is a new alternative to our current, photosynthesis-based food chain. For those who think it's a scam, consider that they have already convinced the European Space Agency to be a partner: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2018/11/26/how-a-startup-plans-to-make-edible-protein-from-air-and-electricity/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2018/11/26/how-a-st... And for those who think the headline is misleading: It's comparable to saying that plant protein comes from sun+air+water. They first build a small bioreactor with some microbes inside but after that the input is (mostly?) air (including carbon dioxide and nitrogen), electricity (preferably from solar) and a little water, and the output "looks and tastes like wheat flour, with 50% protein content and 5–10 % fat and 20–25 % carbs." https://solarfoods.fi/bioprocess/ https://solarfoods.fi/bioprocess/
morphle 7y ago
Original paper and the other papers by the authors (leading up to the resulting startup) [1] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.089# https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.089# [2] https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=6tlAHpQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=6tlAHpQAAAAJ&... [3] https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=F4_L9CYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=F4_L9CYAAAAJ&...
- morphle 7y ago
  I would say its at least 3800 million years old https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blue-planet-2-ii-bbc-one-the-deep-episode-2-iplayer-hydrothermal-vents-sir-david-attenborough-a8033936.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blu... https://www.sciencealert.com/the-earliest-signs-of-life-on-land-have-been-found-in-3-48-billion-year-old-australian-rocks https://www.sciencealert.com/the-earliest-signs-of-life-on-l...
  - morphle 7y ago
    What is harder to locate in the articles, science papers and video is what precise bacterium or bacteria makes the Solein?
    - fpga_user 7y ago
      Replying to this comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20257882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20257882 How do you get the board for $113? Has the price increased since?

61 points by scribu 7y ago

dlhavema 7y ago

and microbes. Is it pure clickbait to leave off the most vital part of this reaction?

dang 7y ago
OK, we've added microbes to the title above. An Oxford comma too!
- tuukkah 7y ago
  I wouldn't include the microbes in the list of ingredients since the process grows the microbes. I would suggest "Making Protein From Air, Water, and Electricity"
  - dang 7y ago
    We'll get even more complaints if we say 'from' instead of 'using'. Looking at the article it seems like the microbes predate the process?
    - tuukkah 7y ago
      Yes, but they are the "machine" (that doesn't deplete). The inputs are air, water and electricity just as the title says.
- dlhavema 7y ago
  Hey cool. I mean basically everyone knew something else had to be involved. Thanks for the update. I didn't know how to include the oxford comma in my comment, but briefly considered how :)

acjohnson55 7y ago

Soylent Green is people!

ars 7y ago

"and fed with carbon dioxide and hydrogen bubbles" This is nonsense. Protein needs nitrogen. Maybe they get it from air, but I suspect this isn't real.

tuukkah 7y ago
It's real, but the marketing slogan doesn't include all the details mentioned here: "Their only ingredients are hydrogen-oxidising bacteria, electricity from solar panels, a small amount of water, carbon dioxide drawn from the air, nitrogen and trace quantities of minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium and zinc." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electric-food-sci-fi-diet-planet-food-animals-environment https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electr...

mlinksva 7y ago

Wonder how this production mechanism pencils out as a way to feed everyone for years without sun, i.e., relative to other options explored in https://www.appropedia.org/Feeding_Everyone_No_Matter_What https://www.appropedia.org/Feeding_Everyone_No_Matter_What

incompatible 7y ago

Duplicate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311235

dang 7y ago
On HN we only count a post as a duplicate if the story has had significant attention; that one maybe doesn't quite clear the bar.

FZ1 7y ago

You sort of missed the LIVING MICROBES part of the article. Which is where the uh, PROTEIN comes from ... smh ...

burlesona 7y ago

A much more detailed description can be found on the related opinion piece here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electric-food-sci-fi-diet-planet-food-animals-environment https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electr... The process involves using microbes seeded with a bunch of minerals in addition to the air, water, and electricity, so this headline oversimplifies things quite a bit. Meanwhile the opinion piece also makes the case for why anyone should care: in short, figuring out ways to grow food in radically less space - and in particular, using barren land (the article says sunny deserts would be ideal for this method) - is key to reversing significant environmental harm done by industrial agriculture. ^ that’s a summary of the opinion piece, I don’t have a lot of knowledge or opinion in this area.

tuukkah 7y ago

This is a new alternative to our current, photosynthesis-based food chain. For those who think it's a scam, consider that they have already convinced the European Space Agency to be a partner: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2018/11/26/how-a-startup-plans-to-make-edible-protein-from-air-and-electricity/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2018/11/26/how-a-st... And for those who think the headline is misleading: It's comparable to saying that plant protein comes from sun+air+water. They first build a small bioreactor with some microbes inside but after that the input is (mostly?) air (including carbon dioxide and nitrogen), electricity (preferably from solar) and a little water, and the output "looks and tastes like wheat flour, with 50% protein content and 5–10 % fat and 20–25 % carbs." https://solarfoods.fi/bioprocess/ https://solarfoods.fi/bioprocess/

morphle 7y ago

Original paper and the other papers by the authors (leading up to the resulting startup) [1] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.089# https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.089# [2] https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=6tlAHpQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=6tlAHpQAAAAJ&... [3] https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=F4_L9CYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=en&user=F4_L9CYAAAAJ&...

morphle 7y ago
I would say its at least 3800 million years old https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blue-planet-2-ii-bbc-one-the-deep-episode-2-iplayer-hydrothermal-vents-sir-david-attenborough-a8033936.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blu... https://www.sciencealert.com/the-earliest-signs-of-life-on-land-have-been-found-in-3-48-billion-year-old-australian-rocks https://www.sciencealert.com/the-earliest-signs-of-life-on-l...
- morphle 7y ago
  What is harder to locate in the articles, science papers and video is what precise bacterium or bacteria makes the Solein?
  - fpga_user 7y ago
    Replying to this comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20257882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20257882 How do you get the board for $113? Has the price increased since?