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I ,1IICROBF'S TO TIIE RESCUE - . .. . ~... . . . .1r.~. ALTON BLAtiESLEE •• "The business of a biug isto make ( ••{yE HI'f bIICROBES with chem •- home ' says Dr Farle "In some B y . y a living," Dr. Farley says. "Theyl icals. hfost of them are killed. places the biologut has the job only- P S i , c A cnce Editor ~ eat' whatever Is around them. !! Others manage to survive with =; of keeping bugs out of the laboratory;~ -Berkeley, Calif. '(AP) - Our There's an infinite:variety of mio-; tered genes becoming mc:-+nts tr :' or production line, to avoid contami-' ptanet Earth can't stop at some ce-- robes, and they are phenomenal we can select and turn around to our nation:" lestial service station to fill up again chemical factories. Some, use and' benefit. We purify and ferment the ~ NOW, NUMEROUS major com- on oil. concentrate uranium; others. silvcr I ones we want. If there is a promising panies are taking ' new interest kt ~ When the original underground , or lead, stdl others digest ,lignin in ` bug that is just barely making it, we microbes and biology, Cape and Fa- I i ta s run dry, the oil encrgy]ourncy wood. :. ;.' can help improve the strain." . , ley say - industries such as foo. • ' is over. That may be only 25 ycars ' '"We supply them with a kind of ~- . The automated laboratory is In- 4 chemicals, energy, mining, pollution `; spired by Dr. Donald Glaser's work ~ control, paper and milting, as•the - from now. ' plush hotel feed them nutrients ,) , Where, then, will we get the ter- keep them warm, and, let them do ' in designing computers and. other i inevitable end to the river of . oil~~ wash-and-wear clo- `their thing, namely to grow andl . equipment to analyze organisms for approaches• , ilizers plastics ! , , One great strength for the blolog-*'• thing, pesticides, medicines, dyes, produce chemicals of interest to us." genetic changes: Dr. Glaser, of thc painls and thousands of other pro- NUMEROUS SCIENTISTS fccl University of California here, won Z fcal revolution, Cape and Farley„ % ducts now made from chemicals In that microbes can tackle almost any Nobel Prize in physics for discovery ~ point out, is that both the microb.s petroleum? task that synthetic organic chemis-I of_the bubble chamber to detect : and the nutrients they need are re-' Somc scientists are betting on try can do, if you find the rightt sub-atomic'particles,'. He then -! newable. Cornstarch, so abondant, Ls i molds and fungi as one organisms: swttched, his career to, molecular -~ a source of sugar to feed the bacteria '` l , perhapc .t genettcs. .' ~=5 s Other crops, cane sugar vital source. The search for new organisms or d t , ;: ;. ''A biolo tcal revolution is ones tbat have undergone mutation - He and another Nobelist'= Dr.fleven ordinary grass nurture coming. In the next 30 years or so, or genetic alteration has long gone Joshua . Lederberg, a. biologist 'at a sunlight, become a raw material."'- on in many laboratories. I Staaford. University School of " ; Countries with much sunlight tb're-:~ bi i ill r lac eh i mi r o ogyw ep n e e st y . . _ importance in this country," say ' It is tedious work w ti few c k • 1t'Medtcme;-aie consultants to Cetus- ~ fore are rich in part of a substitute.% intecested for nl il B il i k - . y . rax ee o s le Dr F i : + D l ar y sa > rs Rona d E. Cape and PeterJ cesses . -.•,. • w and.among other things is producin;9 '' Farley. only one in 10,000 m.a wns is a n v THE SPRINGBOARD for a;~ through microbes and fe-menta-- r Lm r bl i t f i h a l - '~ t n p uepr o oveTen , suc .bio.ica o6 :alt of (he i l adAi THEYARE PRESIDENT and revolution 0 ton - alcohol toacen'exYen ( the yield of an antibiocic. A h man k . l dg f ti a a d biol ' u e now o gene e c n vice-president respectively of Cetus o8.1 flcostly gasoline, wtilchjt has I ny Iteam, screening up to Ui6organisms learned in the last 20 years, includ-;,~; ~roct Cor oration he e, a e .. . p r ompa already engaged In pushing along'1 a day would spend an average of 103 mg understandings now of the ' just such a revolution. In one suc- working days to f(nd one desircd ; quisite genetic code ot lffe,says Dr ~k cess, they increased the annual yield reward. t' Farley: _, , i.; Cetus has deve'op d z:~ But Industry has done little with of-a major antibiotic by 50 per cent ~" ti i d ili i i hi e c, m n atur ze mac n - it st F, it,except for the pharmaceutical by finding a new "bug" that does a fills a small huildin2 - th~t ec •:~4. industrv maldne antihlnfb.- enA eta:° 0 While oil can.be used only once, screen 20,000 or more mtcre'>.,.'-ing Cetus assignmentstofind bettery '' 0 ° y every seven to days,Dr CarG strains. .• .., .• . me 1 microbes renew themselvn~ S o s It su li s n t ie t h :" I t d s ni b d 7 ~ pp e u n s on a ..er r t n us ry use es an cro S every 20 minules roducing~ while i , p organisms can row and auloma(i mentation to mak b er d i ; g e w nc an e various chemlcals Only a few or- . s cally carries out the bioassay but " ot and some other roduots in , p , : anhma cause disease'- the'vast g comparative tests to measurg ., some of today's Industrial, ma) it ' t d f i or y o o use u : thinga Inlt > lbtl Pre a , : , . resus. ,;, -,a:;aoraora,astaa wwld telt ~ ---- .. ~ . . .. • . . . ~. _ , ,..... .~-.sfs•.ave,•.;-ar.r.- . . , . .. ... *i-., ..3:;jt zgssMOOi Contlaued From'Page 16 ' ' FARTHER DOWN the line is the possibility of producing drugs or: chemicals'through gene-stitching,' says Dr. Cape, whose degree Is in: molecular biology., This is the much • discussed recombinant DNA issue. Pieces . of genetic material' called ` DNA can be inserted into other cells, even across species lines, to give them new properties: Genes respon-1 ,sible for making Insulin might,,for ' . example, be placed in common bac- teria. , ; Some critics fear~ bacteria might be created which, escaping from: . p g laboratories or factories, could cause J. This, Farley says, "would be ' great harm or uncontrollable genetics with your eyes open instead eases. Safety pcecautions are being 1 of closed; + as has happened histbri- worked out before' gene-stftching is i cally with nature'a random muta- applied on a significant scale In this i tions and genetk changesf forteither aUons are u Other r c tr om6 ; n y o t g , f:bd good or.a,' right ahead _ ;z , . - ., WHEN SAFETY ISSUES are re- solved. Cetus may enter this field, says Dr. Farley, whose degi•se Is In medicine: . One project, Cetus Is considering Is development'of an ideaf or super- . bug he says. It would feed and be prolific on.,an inexpensive nutrient and• be so genetically constituted .that "It would become a basket case . if' it ever 'got, away, from you. It couldn't survive "outside the laboratory." . - into it could be Inserted the genes valuable chemicals roducin