amanda schaffer

05.13.08

Breeding the Oil Bug

Biologists can now create organisms that have never before existed—including designer bacteria that turn sugar into fuel
By Amanda Schaffer Posted 04.01.2008 at 9:56 am 20 Comments

It could be an aerial photo of an oil spill: liquid spheres pooling, oozing, dwarfing a bedraggled landscape. I half expect to zoom in on poisoned seal pups or waterbirds dragging their oil-soaked feathers. But the scene is microscopic. The “landscape” is made of E. coli. And what’s happening is exactly the opposite of what it seems. The little bugs aren’t drowning in fuel. They’re making it.

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Cocktail Party Science: Solving the Gas Problem

The editors and writers of PopSci sit down with host Chuck Cage to discuss genetically-modified fuel, the Vatican and whether the Internet is, indeed, for porn (not voters)
By Posted 03.17.2008 at 5:11 pm 1 Comment

Cocktail Party Science Episode 4: Photo by iStockphoto
Fuel your stomach, then fuel your mind with this week's edition of Cocktail Party Science. Listen in as host Chuck Cage talks to writer Amanda Schaffer and PopSci editor Seth Fletcher about how E. coli could become the most alternative fuel of all.

Plus: Should pollution be a sin? How 'bout genetic engineering?

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