Just a minute ago I was listening to an interview with Gary Strobel, a plant pathologist at Montana State University. In this interview, he discusses his discovery of a fungus from a tree stem in Patagonia that produces diesel compounds. Yes, diesel the gas. He maintains that the pure substance produced by this fungus (no altering whatsoever) could be used to power vehicles (and anything else that requires diesel). Pretty amazing. Here's an article regarding the subject.
Another thing I find amazing is that the speaker for our Biology Seminar on Friday from NC State referred to Gary Strobel specifically for unethical practice(s). The EPA had a fit when he injected a genetically altered organism into elm trees on the MSU campus without approval to combat Dutch elm disease. He rectified (as best one could I suppose) the situation by cutting them all down.
Crazy, crazy world! I have a professor who is working on a similar sounding fuel that needs very little processing from drift algae! Pretty cool!
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