Posthuman Blues

'Termite Guts Can Save The Planet,' Says Nobel Laureate

"A billion years of evolution have produced a highly efficient factory for turning cellulose into ethanol, unlike anything which humans can yet design. By exploiting these tricks, says Chu, we can use biology as a solution to a pressing world problem.

"Nuclear fission [sic] may be the holy grail, but in the 50 years since it was first proposed, the predicted time-to-market has grown ever more distant. Solar and wind power look appealing, but mankind has not yet discovered how to store electricity on a large scale. Ethanol, a chemical fuel which would release no more carbon than it took to produce, would be the solution."

Reading this, I had a funky vision of massive, genetically manufactured termite abdomens suspended over a futuristic cityscape, translucent guts churning and spitting plumes of fragrant ethanol into a labyrinthine network of tubes and hoses . . .