DARPA's Living Foundries Concept
ElectricAye
Posts: 4,561
It's short notice and probably already packed with their hand-picked contractors but at least you know they are considering this stuff. Just FYI for some folks here.
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=77b10102cba5c98c6be6b5c3d7a11387&tab=core&_cview=0
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=77b10102cba5c98c6be6b5c3d7a11387&tab=core&_cview=0
Comments
I was just thinking about something similar to this. I was driving by a farm yesterday and saw a brown cow with a 1 foot vertical white stripe on its mid section. And it was probably this way due to breeding.
Anyway I was thinking that some day they might have "designer cows". You would be able to pick any sort of hair color pattern you wanted, then that cow could be created from genetic engineering. For example a poka-dot cow!
Then I was wondering what all hair colors would be available. White, brown, red, black. But could other colors of hair be created? A green cow?
Well, it's not hair they are growing, but have a look at this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/889951.stm
Things like color patterns are actually formed in a fractal manner; we know how it happens on a few animals, where it turns out to be a relatively simple algorithm that makes a complicated pattern as it's expressed in embryonic and later growth. So breeding cows that have your corporate logo on their side is probably not feasible. Adding a new color, like green, probably is, but you might not get much choice about how it's distributed on the animal's hide (other than "complete" versus "some complicated pattern over which you don't have much control" coverage).