Slashdot Mirror
Echeria Coli Co-Opted To Make Gasoline
Flask_Man writes "Technology Review has an article about a small biotech company in the Silicon Valley that has successfully produced renewable gasoline from genetically modified bacteria, including the nefarious E.Coli bacteria. A pilot plant is slated to be constructed in California in 2008, and it is claimed that hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules are capable of being produced. The modified bacteria make and excrete hydrocarbon molecules that are the length and molecular structure the company desires. From the article: 'To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you're left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel.'" We discussed something similar to this earlier this year.
About 3500$ a gallon?
1) High fever
2) General listlessness.
3) Urinating gasoline.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
I already produce gas from bacteria. Move on, nothing new here.
"nefarious"? That's no way to talk about your life partner! You may prefer not to think about what's going on in your tract, but the truth is we're all full of shit. And our coliform friends are helping us out with our situation. And now, they're giving us gas.
I haven't read the article yet, but maybe they're referring to the dangerous strain, in which case, they'd be correct in stating "nefarious E.Coli." Either way, I applaud any use of the word "nefarious." It sounds really cool.
Let me guess, the bacteria eat homeless?
Monstar L
So how do they get past the fact that e.Coli dies in gasoline? how did they change the bug to have a higher tolerance to their new unnatural excretions?
Science.
Please help metamoderate.
Humans are Mother Nature's way of getting her carbon out of the ground and back into circulation.
/kidding
//sort of
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
Germs that make gasoline.
So soon I'll be able to contract a flesh-eating, anti-biotic resistant, EXPLOSIVE infection.
Just great. While you're at it how about a pill that turns body fat into C4?
--
I for one, welcome our explosive bacterial overlords.
Is that a comparison of the different intensities that your wife has to nag you to do something before you actually get up and do it?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Right next to the coppery and the nickely.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
No, that's cellulite. And thanks for ruining my appetite for the day.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
He can't even spell it right, and you want him to get the exact strain (E. Coli 057:H7) right?
You must be new here.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.