Topic
Genetic engineering of microbial strains to perform industrial chemistry, here acid production for mineral dissolution.
A Nagoya University team reports DNA assembly two to five times more efficient than restriction enzymes plus T4 ligase, mostly by recovering more product and leaving longer overhangs.
Reality
A Nature Biotechnology paper reports a hybridization-driven synthesis method that builds over 1,000 distinct gene fragments in a single reaction, then uses it to find PETase variants beating the standard enzyme.
Reality
Engineered Pantoea agglomerans colonies compute with chemical signals instead of wires. The demonstrations are on agar in Petri dishes, and one calculation takes about eight hours.
Reality
A modified Gluconobacter oxydans releases nickel and cobalt from ultramafic rock while parking carbon in magnesium oxalate, which holds two carbons per magnesium. It is still flask-scale work.
Reality