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Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

newscenter.lbl.gov

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Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#13

Post by cellis »

throwup238 wrote: post #5
advisedwang wrote: post #3

No doubt we'll see this transplanted into GM crops for reduced fertilizer need.

Maybe we'll make some progress in human genetic engineering and get it in us too. We'd be able to eliminate the need for B3 vitamins!

IVG + gene editing, we're already there!

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#14

Post by yxhuvud »

egberts1 wrote: post #12
advisedwang wrote: post #3

No doubt we'll see this transplanted into GM crops for reduced fertilizer need.

Or worse, multiple faster than algaes and sucking up all the Nitrogen from thr air.

Do you realise 70% of the atmosphere is nitrogen? We will not run out of it.

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#15

Post by TaylorAlexander »

spacephysics wrote: post #6
throwup238 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we'll make some progress in human genetic engineering and get it in us too. We'd be able to eliminate the need for B3 vitamins!

I’ll let other people try that out, then in 20 years we’ll do the classic “well sh/ t, messing with this actually* also messes that up. Whoops!”

In fact back to the original comment we’re finding out that shoving chemicals and GM crops in to complex ecosystems messes a lot of stuff up too.

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#16

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

egberts1 wrote: post #12
advisedwang wrote: post #3

No doubt we'll see this transplanted into GM crops for reduced fertilizer need.

Or worse, multiple faster than algaes and sucking up all the Nitrogen from thr air.

Removing the nitrogen bottleneck would let them capture carbon faster. Given our predicament I'd say we should take all the help we get.

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#17

Post by adastra22 »

egberts1 wrote: post #12
advisedwang wrote: post #3

No doubt we'll see this transplanted into GM crops for reduced fertilizer need.

Or worse, multiple faster than algaes and sucking up all the Nitrogen from thr air.

Nitrogen is inert. Even if you could run out of N2 (unlikely), it would have no effect.

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#18

Post by adrianN »

advisedwang wrote: post #3

No doubt we'll see this transplanted into GM crops for reduced fertilizer need.

Since we spend a couple percent of our total energy consumption just on turning nitrogen into fertilizer, anything that reduces our dependence would be awesome for the climate.

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#19

Post by dzink »

Using this to reduce the need for fertilizer would be awesome, but the engineer in me has to ask “What could possibly go wrong”. Interstellar showed one scenario. A nitrogen absorbing crop-blight or species out-evolving out food crops and overtaking them. With far more fuel the odds would be in favor of species that can consume nitrogen, and how do you keep those at bay when it happens?

Re: Scientists discover first nitrogen fixing organelle

#20

Post by ctrw »

dzink wrote: post #19

Using this to reduce the need for fertilizer would be awesome, but the engineer in me has to ask “What could possibly go wrong”. Interstellar showed one scenario. A nitrogen absorbing crop-blight or species out-evolving out food crops and overtaking them. With far more fuel the odds would be in favor of species that can consume nitrogen, and how do you keep those at bay when it happens?

This has been going on for 100m years. I doubt we are in any urgent danger.
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