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TITANIC LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS. "Measurements of a big sea on Titan, a moon of Saturn, show that it contains about 9,000 cubic km of mostly liquid methane. This huge volume is equivalent, say scientists, to about 40 times the proven reserves of oil and gas on Earth."" " http://lnkd.in/d9AmjyJ View in LinkedIn

OIL CULTURE IS RELATIVELY NEW. ‘A century ago, petroleum – what we call oil – was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.’ (James Buchan). "We live in a world composed of ancient sunlight. Literally. Look around you – almost every object you see has a history that starts with simple chemical building blocks synthesized from petroleum- fossilized carbon trapped by photosynthesis and buried for millennia."" " http://lnkd.in/dZnKpdV View in LinkedIn

UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES. " ""Although dyes were the earliest economically important synthetic compounds, the development of the European dye industry would ultimately lead to successes in chemotherapy. Indeed, nearly all of the modern big pharmaceutical companies are in part descended from German or Swiss dye manufacturers."" " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO REVIEW from a contrarian viewpoint.." " http://lnkd.in/d9qzzsz View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGY AS ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS, a radical new viewpoint. "The boldness of the stated goals—to learn how to precisely and reliably engineer and build self-organizing systems that both recapitulate biological function and show new functions—is unquestionably novel. Many reviews have compared synthetic biology to electrical engineering, noting that cellular networks, like electronic circuits, are built in a hierarchical fashion from modular components that perform logical computations." " " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn

BIOBASH DEC 17, Portal de L'Angel 36, off Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona" "" "This is our monthly event to get entrepreneurs together to have a few drinks in a relaxed environment, hear a topical talk, and meet fellow entrepreneurs. We started in March, and have 30-50 attendees. Too often, Barcelona entrepreneurs only meet at conferences. Come and enjoy your ecosystem! View in LinkedIn

FROM SYNCHEM TO SYNBIO. The chemical synthesis of DNA oligonucleotides, RNA and cDNA were linear extensions of the early synthesis of urea and explosion of synthetic (modern organic) chemistry in the 19th century. Just as the synthesis of natural molecules considered off limits for chemists was revolutionary, so today, Synthetic Biology is a paradigm shift, where the synthesis of new life forms was equally condidered impossible. " " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO GREEN CHEMICALS. "Bio-derived chemicals still account for just 1–2% of the overall chemicals market, but that is still expected to amount to about US$1 billion next year."(2011)." " http://lnkd.in/dgNcfcS View in LinkedIn

EARTH-SHATTERING SYNTHESIS OF UREA by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828: "the synthesis of this small organic molecule was earth-shattering news. Chemists believed there was a clear distinction between molecules from living beings (referred to as 'organic') and those from nonliving origin ('inorganic'), and a 'vital force' present only in living organisms was required to convert the inorganic into organic. This was a key nail in the coffin of vitalism."" " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY revolutionized chemistry. "The mid-nineteenth century saw the development of a radical new direction in chemistry: instead of simply analyzing existing molecules, chemists began to synthesize them—including molecules that did not exist in nature. The combination of this new synthetic approach with more traditional analytical approaches revolutionized chemistry,"" " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn