Is there a market for a synthetic tree that can move around?

this from eenews.net

...Ten years ago, no one, Lackner included, really believed it could be possible to efficiently capture and remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. Today, the idea is still widely considered a far-fetched option for addressing climate change.

But as emissions climb and as global climate targets look increasingly difficult and expensive to meet, it is, to some, one of the only options that could someday turn back the hands of time.

What is needed is a machine that can actually reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere....

Scientists Build First Man-Made Genome; Synthetic Life Comes Next

this from wired.com

Scientists have built the first synthetic genome by stringing together 147 pages of letters representing the building blocks of DNA.

The researchers used yeast to stitch together four long strands of DNA into the genome of a bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium. They said it's more than an order of magnitude longer than any previous synthetic DNA creation. Leading synthetic biologists said with the new work, published Thursday in the journal Science, the first synthetic life could be just months away -- if it hasn't been created already.

"We consider this the second in our three-step process to create the first synthetic organism," said J. Craig Venter, president of the J. Craig Venter Institute where scientists performed the study, on Thursday during a teleconference. "What remains now that we have this complete synthetic chromosome … is to boot this up in a cell."

With the new ability to sequence a genome, scientists can begin to custom-design organisms, essentially creating biological robots that can produce from scratch chemicals humans can use. Biofuels like ethanol, for example.

"The J. Craig Venter Institute will be able to take a file stored on a computer and using synthetic chemistry, turn that information into life," said Chris Voigt, a University of California at San Francisco synthetic biologist. "I would be shocked if it doesn't come out in six months. I think they've done it."

The technique is basically a reverse of the Human Genome Project, which translated DNA into the letters A, C, T and G, which represent the body's building blocks: the nucleotides adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. Synthetic biologists' ambitious goal is to arrange those letters to create never-before-seen organisms that will do their bidding.

The first phase of Venter's three-step process, which he published last year, involved transplanting and "booting up" the genome of one species of bacterium into another. The remaining step is to combine the first two steps, then insert the new synthetic genome into a standard bacterium. Scientists said they expect the announcement of man-made life this year.

Saucer platforms in the sky...

From DefenseIndustryDaily.com:

Like all DARPA projects, ISIS is pushing the limits of technology. Critical technology areas requiring further development include low aerial-density advanced airship hull material, bonding systems that will keep the radar attached to a hull with different thermal properties in temperatures that can cycle between 100 degrees F to -110 degrees (40C to -80C), extremely low-power transmit-receive modules for the radars, and novel power systems for long-endurance stratospheric airship operation.

Her name is ISIS...

This report from Infowars.com:

The Pentagon has announced intentions to launch an entire fleet of giant 450-foot-long airships which will act as a massive airborne radar system providing perpetual surveillance of vehicles, planes and people on the ground.

The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will operate on hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels, floating 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, reports the LA Times.

The airships will be around twenty times larger than the Goodyear Blimp, giving ground operators the capability of monitoring an area hundreds of miles in diameter at a time with surveillance equipment, such as high-resolution cameras, in addition to the football-field-sized radar antenna.

Although very large, the airships will be invisible to both the naked eye and ground radar because of their distance from the earth, hovering around 12 miles above the ground.

The craft would also operate beyond the range of any hand-held missile, many surface-to-air missiles and most fighter planes.

The airship, named ISIS ( Integrated Sensor Is the Structure), no doubt after the Ancient Egyptian goddess, is being developed under an agreement between the Air Force and DARPA, the Pentagon’s semi-secret research arm.

Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force describes the airship as “constant surveillance, uninterrupted”.

“When you only have a short-time view — whether it is a few hours or a few days — that is not enough to put the picture together.” Dahm said.

The Pentagon has described the project as a tool to be used over urban battlegrounds abroad. But, like DARPA’S”Combat Zones That See” project, there’s no reason ISIS couldn’t float over major cities such as New York or Chicago without anyone knowing.

A similar program known as WALRUS was effectively killed off by Congress in 2006. However, the ISIS program has been floating around (pun intended) since 2004.

“We will apply this technology to track people emerging from buildings of interest and follow them as they move to new locations,” announced DARPA’s Paul Benda at a conference in March 2004. “Imagine the impact it will have if ISIS tracks the movement of individuals for months. Hidden webs of connections between people and facilities will be revealed.”

In 2006, reports regarding the project resurfaced as DARPA courted defense contractors Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to develop the airships.

The Air Force has signed an agreement with DARPA to develop a demonstration dirigible by 2014.