Microbes Produce Precursor To Missile Propellent

Makarand writes "According to this article on ScienceDaily.com microbiologists at the Michigan State University have created strains of bacteria which can convert certain types of sugars into a non-natural synthetic material, called butanetriol, which is used to produce a missile propellant (butanetriol trinitrate). The DNA of bacteria like Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fragi was altered so that these bacteria could act as minifactories producing butanetriol. Interestingly, butanetriol is a precursor to two cholesterol-lowering drugs making this process useful in both pharmaceutical and defense applications."

Comments

Yeah just what we need

[Kethinov]

more missile propellent. God forbid we should research a cure for AIDS or Cancer when we can research new ways to create missile propellent! Because missile propellent is so much more important than real scientific research these days in America. Gotta arm ourselves because everyone except us is a terrorist!

You may disagree with my cynicism but you know I'm right...

Re:Yeah just what we need

[Zardoz44]

Let's see where the problem is, according to the article:

1. It's cleaner for the environment. (a good thing)

2. It's more efficient and less costly. (saving you money == a good thing)

3. Used in medicines as well as missles. (many uses == a good thing)

4. The process can potentially be used to create other materials in a similar way, which may, who knows, help the fight against AIDs and cancer. (a good thing)

Which part of this don't you like? Missles are going to be propelled one way or the other, so why not improve the method while at the same time advancing a technology that has potential to help in many other areas?

Or were you just trolling?

Two thoughts on this

[chia_monkey]

First thought...just how much of this propellant can be produced by these microbes? It really seems like you'd need quite a bit to launch a missle. Can this be done from the work of some microbes?

Second...people will complain about how money is being spent on military research, but let's look at the positive here. It's a precursor to lowering colesterol. Who knows when we'll be working on developing some sort of funky things to melt enemy tires or something and come up with a compound that kills only cancer cells and leaves all other cells unharmed. It's exciting in an odd sort of way.