cassie_o_52
- The Environment
Breeding the Oil Bug
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 whats happening is exactly the opposite of what it seems. The little bugs arent drowning in fuel. Theyre making it.
4.23.2008 at 05:11pm - Comment by cassie_o_52This kinda makes me nervous. I'm all for a way to create gas so I don't have to give up my classic car, but this could turn out bad. How do we know this bacteria couldn't infect and process the sugars in animals? Plants? Us? If they can, how quickly do they process sugars and how quickly do they replicate? I'm curious if there is anyway to inhibit the bacteria from using the sugar in a living thing. Inhibitors perhaps?
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December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
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