The direct use of carbon dioxide to synthesize starch is a disruptive achievement.
On the surface, the use of carbon dioxide to synthesize starch, which on the one hand can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, on the other hand, can provide the necessary nutrients for human survival, is a remarkable achievement, but its real significance may be far greater than it seems on the surface. The use of inorganic matter to synthesize organic matter is the first step for humans to jump out of the traditional food chain. In the food chain, there are producers and consumers, plants are producers, they solidify the energy in sunlight in the form of mass through photosynthesis, and herbivores are primary consumers, they get energy by eating plants, and carnivores are high-level consumers, they get energy by eating herbivores, so essentially all living things have energy sources from the sun, and humans are no exception.
There are two problems with the traditional food chain, one is that all living things depend on the producer for their energy source, so the number of producers determines the number of consumers.
We all know that the development of human civilization has squeezed out the living space of other animals, so the number of many animals has decreased sharply, and some are even on the verge of extinction, but this is something that cannot be done. Because human beings are also consumers, human survival also depends on producers, so human beings need arable land, need pasture, and need to occupy a large number of producers. Because the earth's space is limited, there are more producers occupied by humans, and there are fewer producers occupied by other animals, so the number will naturally decrease, and the use of inorganic substances to directly synthesize organic matter for human consumption means that human survival will no longer depend on producers, if in the future human beings can achieve the self-synthesis of all nutrients, then the impact of their own activities on other animals can be minimized.
Second, in the traditional food chain, the transmission of energy will be greatly depleted.
Herbivores eat plants, but can not absorb all the energy contained in plants, and carnivores eat herbivores, also can not absorb all the energy contained in herbivores, in fact, in the traditional food chain, the energy transfer efficiency is not even 20%, so when you eat a roast leg of lamb, it means that you consume a very large number of plants, and the energy you get is extremely limited. The direct synthesis of edible nutrients through carbon dioxide means that the loss in the energy transfer process is eliminated and the energy transfer efficiency is significantly improved.
So, does the direct use of carbon dioxide to synthesize starch mean that humans have taken the first step beyond nature? This is an exaggeration.
The direct synthesis of organic matter using inorganic substances has enabled humans to transcend the traditional food chain, but not beyond nature. In the food chain, all living things depend on producers, who depend on the energy provided by the sun, and even though humans can directly use inorganic substances to synthesize food, the nature of the sun as the sole source of energy on Earth has not changed. Carbon dioxide can not be turned into starch, this process requires the consumption of energy, and whether it is coal, oil, wind energy or water energy, its essence is solar energy, so the use of carbon dioxide synthetic starch is essentially still a process of curing solar energy into quality.
Therefore, in order to industrialize the technology of carbon dioxide synthesis starch, the first thing to solve is the problem of energy cost.
The current energy consumption of this technology in the laboratory is controllable and the efficiency is also very high, but if you go out of the laboratory, the energy consumption will definitely increase, and if this technology wants to be widely promoted, the cost of the whole process must be lower than the cost of agricultural planting, at that time, human beings can truly get rid of the dependence on food chain producers, and the cultivated land can also be returned to nature. Is this possible? It is possible that because the way humans obtain energy is undergoing changes, such as controlled nuclear fusion technology, only 100 tons of helium-3 can meet the energy needs of all mankind for a year, if it becomes a reality, we can really use inorganic substances to directly synthesize food at a lower cost than agricultural cultivation, and humans will really jump out of the food chain.
The use of inorganic substances to directly synthesize food, although it can not allow humans to transcend nature, but it can help human beings to take to new heights.
For example, there are many planets in the universe that are similar to the earth's environment, in the future, if we want to build the basic on these planets, we no longer have to worry about the problem of food, we can use the inorganic substances inherent in these planets to directly synthesize food, which will bring great convenience to the future expansion of the universe, because we cannot quickly grow a large number of crops on an unknown planet, nor can we transport food through interstellar transportation, and we can synthesize food anytime and anywhere, which will greatly accelerate the pace of cosmic exploration. So the use of carbon dioxide to synthesize starch, in the long run, it is the starting point for human beings to move to new heights.