Lab-grown wood could be future of furniture

[Tony]

Most of us like a nice piece of wood, to carve, make things, for shelter building etc etc. I wonder how far this will come along as a possibility. I can imagine spoon carving from blocks of 3D printed wood, tool handles etc... friction firelighting with 3D printed components

Lab-grown wood could be future of furniture

American scientists are working on a plan to "grow" wood in a laboratory without sunlight or soil.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[punkrockcaveman]

They are probably trialling it for space stuff. Then hopefully all the folk that don't like earth can go live on Mars and we can finally get this place cleaned up

 

[Broch]

Mmm... a bit of soul lost there though

Why would you 'make' a blank to throw away 80% of it when carving when you could have printed a spoon in the first place?

If we could properly synthesise food (and I mean real food) then we could release so much more land to grow trees

 

[Laurentius]

I dunno if this is the future or not, I guess it is when there are not enough trees left to supply peoples needs, like everything else, industrial production takes over. On the other hand if they use it to make furniture and leave the forests alone.

 

[CLEM]

Almost but not quite as appealing as lab grown meat
Soylent Green anybugger???

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Lab-grown meat, lab-grown body organs, lab-grown food, lab-grown babies, lab-grown wood........prehaps it's time to invest in laboratories. When man has finished transforming the Earth into a man-made object, there may be a need for lab-grown nature.

 

[henchy3rd]

Mmm... a bit of soul lost there though

Why would you 'make' a blank to throw away 80% of it when carving when you could have printed a spoon in the first place?

If we could properly synthesise food (and I mean real food) then we could release so much more land to grow trees

Synthesise food, ooh..it’ll be like eating a pot noodle. Hold on a minute?
Synthesise trees, like mobile phone masts to look like trees.. know there’s a thought?

 

[TeeDee]

Interesting titibit of information.

Bill 'windows' Gates is now ( because he has diversified his holdings ) the largest owner of USA farmland.

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

The Microsoft billionaire has been quietly building a 242,000-acre portfolio of agricultural land across 18 states.

www.forbes.com

and others are buying up large tracts of land also.

America’s big business billionaires are buying up LOTS of land

Wealthy business people are buying up bigger and bigger plots of land as investments.

thehustle.co

As Mr Gates is on his soapbox preaching that we are all eating too much meat ( maybe right , maybe wrong ) I wonder what he will be growing on his farmland?


No doubt this is also a move by the super rich to preserve their wealth from the much anticipated strong levels of inflation that is being predicted.

 

[Robson Valley]

My trees are solar powered. Have not cost me any money so far.
From the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic, we have 18,000,000 ha standing dead and dried pine, here in BC. Which one would you like? Our forests are green and growing.

 

[Woody girl]

Oh dear god no!
I'm not a machine, I like living in a natural way. Why is this always peddled as the way of the future.?
Atlantis 2, here we come!

 

[henchy3rd]

Interesting titibit of information.

Bill 'windows' Gates is now ( because he has diversified his holdings ) the largest owner of USA farmland.

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

The Microsoft billionaire has been quietly building a 242,000-acre portfolio of agricultural land across 18 states.

www.forbes.com

and others are buying up large tracts of land also.

America’s big business billionaires are buying up LOTS of land

Wealthy business people are buying up bigger and bigger plots of land as investments.

thehustle.co

As Mr Gates is on his soapbox preaching that we are all eating too much meat ( maybe right , maybe wrong ) I wonder what he will be growing on his farmland?


No doubt this is also a move by the super rich to preserve their wealth from the much anticipated strong levels of inflation that is being predicted.

Is this just existing farm land or untouched natural lands being destroyed for what ever use?

 

[TeeDee]

As far as im aware workable farmland.

 

[Tengu]

What is he going to do with it?

 

[TeeDee]

What is he going to do with it?

Choose or dictate what gets grown on it i'd imagine.

If I wanted to get all tin foil hat about it I may suggest its part of the movement for a 'Great Reset ' as set out as a concept in Davos.


If I wanted to be slightly more pragmatic about it and see Gates as a cautious but ultimately greedy capitalist he may just be doing it so that his wealth is preserved in Hard assets ( Land ) in a period after a ridiculously large amount of Quantitative Easing ( Printing of Money ) in the USA and most of the western world due to the Covid help central banks have initiated.



A lesson from history would be the story of the Inflation King himself Hugo Stinnes who saw what was coming and acted accordingly .

Hugo Stinnes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Jared]

Hmm. Land isn't really the problem, it's energy.

Trees take carbon dioxide from the air, water and energy in the form of sunlight to form cellulose / wood. When you burn wood the process is reversed, cellulose broken back into carbon dioxide and you get the energy back out as heat and light. Law of conservation of energy.

So the claim is they are going to grow wood without sunlight or soil. Without soil is probably easy, hydroponics folk been doing that for a while. But they are going to need energy from somewhere, and they've ruled out sunlight already.

What's the point of using fossil fuels when we can make plastic pretty efficiently.

 

[Tengu]

Working for the Museum of Design in Plastic I would say its because plastic has a bad press

 

[henchy3rd]

As far as im aware workable farmland.

Tee-Dee makes has a valid point,
even with my limited knowledge of investments, the principles are the same.
Money/investments/stocks & shares are becoming to much of a gamble/risk, even for the average person or the super rich, we aren’t prepared to take the risk.

Out right Land ownership on a vast scale is a very profitable business indeed.
More yield of crops(genetically modified, more pesticides)=more profit,even if the farm renter/ tenants crops fail, it’s them that lose.
land is a valuable resource even for pleasure, it’ll never go down in price.
Surly this will inevitably lead to more land grab/ clearance just like other parts of the world as the population grows.
greed & want, chip away here & there, slash & burn?
I can see it now..y’all’s get ‘orf’ my land..,just like it was with the Barron’s/lords & royals & land owners of yesteryear.
Maybe we’ll end up doing a mass trespass again just like in the Peak District for our rights to roam.
Oh no, I’m off on one again! Calm down, take a breath, breathe, relax..

 

[TeeDee]

Tee-Dee makes has a valid point,
even with my limited knowledge of investments, the principles are the same.
Money/investments/stocks & shares are becoming to much of a gamble/risk, even for the average person or the super rich, we aren’t prepared to take the risk.

Out right Land ownership on a vast scale is a very profitable business indeed.
More yield of crops(genetically modified, more pesticides)=more profit,even if the farm renter/ tenants crops fail, it’s them that lose.
land is a valuable resource even for pleasure, it’ll never go down in price.
Surly this will inevitably lead to more land grab/ clearance just like other parts of the world as the population grows.
greed & want, chip away here & there, slash & burn?
I can see it now..y’all’s get ‘orf’ my land..,just like it was with the Barron’s/lords & royals & land owners of yesteryear.
Maybe we’ll end up doing a mass trespass again just like in the Peak District for our rights to roam.
Oh no, I’m off on one again! Calm down, take a breath, breathe, relax..

To O.P , Slight Thread divergence- apologies !!

It is more to do i suspect as a proactive counter measure to the Q.E machine having to go into over drive to help support a financial engine that currently isn't running due to Covid.

Its important to remember the US Dollar is the global reserve currency which means it has a somewhat special ( if abused ) status.

I will throw up some links but the salient points are:-

1/5 th of all U.S Dollars were created this Year.

Almost a fifth of ALL US dollars were created this year

Around 20 per cent of all US dollars were created this year. The surge has led to a debate about inflation and helped asset prices soar.

www.cityam.com

FRED GRAPH

Currency in Circulation

Graph and download economic data for Currency in Circulation (CURRCIR) from Aug 1917 to Sep 2024 about currency and USA.

fred.stlouisfed.org

Notice the now parabolic path of the US dollar. This is now near vertical

President Biden has recently had approved a 1.9 trillion dollar Covid Package - this will increase the amount of outstanding debt even more.

House Passes Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill

Here’s everything you need to know.

www.forbes.com

DXY Dollar/Fiat Collapsing.

Stock market Crash UP

US DEBT CLOCK.

https://usdebtclock.org/

 

[TLM]

What's the point of using fossil fuels when we can make plastic pretty efficiently.

From fossil fuels mostly.

Cellulose can be used as a starting point too but it is more expensive.

What on earth is the point of trying to grow trees without sun light? That is just plain idiotic or paranoic.

 

[Tengu]

I dont think its a good idea somehow

Fungi perhaps.