Synthetic proteins are being built with the help of AI models

Making biofuels is messy, inefficient and expensive. Vast quantities of crops such as maize and soyabeans must be grown, harvested and processed before their energy, accumulated slowly through natural photosynthesis, can be put to use. Nate Ennist of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington, in Seattle, thinks that synthetic proteins can boost the rate of return.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Plenty more room at the bottom”