The Digest’s 8th Birthday Special Issue

July 26, 2015 |

8th-birthday8 years ago, The Digest debuted with two subscribers and an idea.

On July 27th, The Digest turns eight, putting us somewhere around the third grade.

Which is how we feel when confronted with the complexity and creativity of industrial biotechnology and the advanced bioeconomy: The awe of youth, and a near-constant desire to hit the books and better understand the topics we cover.

There’s a vast audience for the advanced bioeconomy, that we hoped to find and delight

We thought back in 2007 that the market needed a concise daily summary of “news you can use” for the bioeconomy.

Some 2,000 editions and 31,000 stories later, we’re glad to still be here to chronicle the journey from “what if?” to “mission accomplished”.

We’ve been busy in Digestville, too, expanding into conferences and BioChannel.TV to keep up with all the news and progress. And we’re delighted to serve 1.68 million readers in 198 countries who make a special part of their day to check out what’s going on in the sector.

Special content this week

This week, we’ll have special content for you, in celebration of our special week. Starting today with a look at the 50 top stories of the year. Tuesday, we open up nominations for the Hottest Companies rankings. And later in the week we give you a sneak preview of the media-meets-science extravaganza known as ABLCNext.

Is the “advanced bioeconomy” glass half-full, or half-empty?

The process engineer says: the glass isn’t half-empty or half-full, the design was incorrect for the throughput.

The scientist says: I’m hoping for a grant to study this question.

The financier says: So, what could you do if I gave you a quarter glass of water?

The environmentalist says: There used to be a lot more water in the glass before the corn industry got going.

The policymaker says: It was supposed to be a full glass, but we couldn’t get the House to go along.

The feedstock developer says: We don’t say half-empty, we say drought-tolerant.

The promoter says: We don’t say half-full, we say “full capacity” at demonstration scale for now, and full-scale in about five years.

Optimists, pessimists, process engineers, scientists, financier, environmentalists, policymakers, feedstock developer — we’re pleased to call so many of you our readers. We thank you for staying with us, and staying with the story — through the years that have gone by, and the many years to come.

Category: Top Stories

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