[HN Gopher] Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chl...
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       Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chloroplasts in
       mammalian cells
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2024-11-11 17:09 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.jstage.jst.go.jp)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.jstage.jst.go.jp)
        
       | 082349872349872 wrote:
       | unfortunately to meet animal energy requirements one would need a
       | huge canopy; it'd probably only be feasible outside our gravity
       | well.
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | Relevant what-if-xkcd https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/
        
           | card_zero wrote:
           | How come chlorophyll photosynthesis isn't more efficient? 6%
           | for plants, 20% for (ordinary) solar panels. Don't plants
           | have to outcompete other plants? Then there's red algae,
           | which inhabit dark places like caves and the ocean, and
           | they're apparently way more efficient. Is it somehow not
           | advantageous to a tree to photosynthesize efficiently?
        
         | culi wrote:
         | You're thinking entirely replacing our energy source. What
         | about just boosting it passively. Imagine if energy
         | requirements for every human were decreased by 2%
        
           | simcop2387 wrote:
           | Probably not dolable on planetary scale but ii imagine it'd
           | help in space, esp if combined with some other mods like
           | fiximg the vitamin c gene to remove scurvy. If we could use
           | light to suppliment our metabolism it'd mean fewer physical
           | resources to bring alon.
        
           | 082349872349872 wrote:
           | > _Imagine if energy requirements for every human were
           | decreased by 2%_
           | 
           | Taking the spherical human to require 8400 kJ/day, we're
           | talking ~170 kJ replacement, or:                   ~6g
           | butter, or         ~1/3 of a can of Coke, or         ~1/3 of
           | a single Bounty piece, or         ~1 McNugget (without sauce)
           | 
           | Not sure that all that biohacking would be worth the single
           | extra smear/swig/bite?
        
         | PaulHoule wrote:
         | The metabolic rate of an animal scales as 0.75 the mass, I
         | guess surface area is about the 0.66 power of mass so I guess
         | it gets more favorable when you get smaller but not by a lot.
         | See https://book.bionumbers.org/how-does-metabolic-rate-scale-
         | wi...
         | 
         | Note thermal efficiency is a problem too.
         | 
         | For instance you could imagine wearing an LED suit that exposes
         | you to a lot of light. You need 100W for your basal metabolism,
         | if photosynthesis were 10% efficient you'd be dealing with 900W
         | of waste heat which is a lot, real-life efficiency would be
         | worse than that.
        
       | zulko wrote:
       | In his 1976 essay on (or against) genetic engineering [1] Erwin
       | Chargaff wrote _" But screams and empty promises fill the air:
       | Don't you want cheap insulin? (...) And how about a green man
       | synthesizing his nourishment: 10 minutes in the sun for
       | breakfast, 30 minutes for lunch, and 1 hour for dinner?"_ Nice to
       | see that scientists are actually trying.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.11643312
        
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