The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new biomining-related project aimed at extracting rare earth elements and reducing U.S. dependence on China, the global leader in rare earth metals. Speaking at a virtual Defense News conference yesterday, DARPA Director Stefanie Tompkins said the Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource, or EMBER, project involves designing microbes that can more efficiently help separate rare earth elements from the order in which they are found. “Right now, that process is...