Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Friday May 29 2015, @12:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the are-you-horny-baby? dept.

A startup company called Pembient is developing a process to synthesize rhino horns. Their aim is to mass produce fakes that are indistinguishable from real horns, and hence destroy the profit motive for killing wild rhinos.

The plan begins with using modified yeast cells to produce a substance called keratin, the main component of the horn. Various trace elements found in natural horns are added in, as well as genuine rhino DNA. From these materials, a 3D printer is then used to recreate the complex structure of the horn. The only things that are missing, are the trace elements of pollutants that have made their way into the real rhino horn over time. This makes the synthetic horn more pure than the real one.

Some wildlife groups are very skeptical of the plan.

Pembient's concept, which another company – Rhinoceros Horn LLC – is also pursuing a version of, has raised the hackles of conservation groups from the World Wildlife Foundation to the wildlife monitoring network Traffic. It panders to consumers' behaviour rather than trying to change it, which could set back efforts to educate, they say. "There is general horror at the idea," says Cathy Dean, international director of the UK-based charity Save the Rhino, which earlier this month issued a joint statement with the International Rhino Foundation opposing the synthetic horn. Dean adds that ersatz horn is unlikely to dent the market – if people can afford the real thing they are going to buy it – and rebukes the company for failing properly to consult conservation professionals on the idea first.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday May 29 2015, @03:39PM

    by captain normal (2205) on Friday May 29 2015, @03:39PM (#189706)

    Humm...did the development of cubic zirconia in the 1970s ruin the DeBeers business model?

    --
    When life isn't going right, go left.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by TLA on Friday May 29 2015, @03:51PM

    by TLA (5128) on Friday May 29 2015, @03:51PM (#189709) Journal

    no, because an industry sprang up almost immediately dedicated to letting people know whether they were rocking real or flaunting fake. There is also a certification process which means that every genuine cut diamond over a certain size (0.18ct IIRC, up to just over 1ct) now is accompanied by a paper certificate with a serial number which is also laser etched on the stone's girdle.

    Somehow I don't think Joe Rhinohornsmuggler will be particularly bothered unless he's smuggling for himself, whether the chunk of nail he's got is off a mammal or out of a 3D printer.

    --
    Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @03:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @03:55PM (#189713)

    No but synthetic diamond is.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/diamond-producers-form-group-to-fight-synthetics-1432743731 [wsj.com]

    Diamond != cubic zirconia anyone with a jewelers loop can tell you that. But you can not tell the difference between a synthetic and the real deal.

    They are in fact moving very quickly to buy up companies that make it and put in measures to make it harder to enter the market (for the customer of course). Mined diamonds cost about 40x of synthetic.