Then you find out that the lack of an ingredient results in the microbes producing the product lol.

Certain algae for example, need to be "starved" in a way that results in them switching from conventional photosynthesis that produces glucose to photosynthesis that functions to generate Hydrogen and Oxygen alone. The Oxygen is used for respiration and the Hydrogen is essentially dumped as a waste product. They can only sustain this for relatively short periods before their stockpile of carbohydrates is sufficiently depleted. Which means these bioreactors need to be cycled through a fattening phase where the algae stockpile fuel and a starvation phase where they exhaust that stockpile while producing Hydrogen.

That's the problem with the biological.

I've given you sunshine.

I've given you dirt.

You've given me nothin'

but heartache and hurt!

I'm beggin' you sweetly.

I'm down on my knees.

Oh please,

Grow protein!!!!

me when i fail the assay i almost singlehandedly designed

it me

today

Hmm object to the average chemical engineering work. We are mostly fancy plumbers, so we end up just sizing pipes and piping systems a lot .

So, is it literally just repeatedly creating the necessary conditions and hoping the stuff will react the right way? Or is it a strict process that needs to be done just so or it’ll ruin the whole thing? Or both?

This meme didn't show the revolving lab door, the giant corporate foot over the biochems head and the minimum wage employee who makes more money than them.

Biological life be like: ahaha entropy go brrrr