digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at timesonline.co.uk

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

timesonline.co.uk — Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide renewable petroleum. ..the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil. Using genetically modified bugs for

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 14, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

392 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • fmtoffolo, on 06/14/2008, -5/+263just like nibbler !
  • inactive, on 06/14/2008, -5/+225So it eats ***** and ***** out something useful?
  • covertress, on 06/14/2008, -4/+213Renewable petroleum -- once an oxymoron, now a great day for science. :)
  • crazyechidna83, on 06/14/2008, -3/+207there have been so many amazing stories on Digg promising breakthrough technology and great discoveries that could one day cure cancer or create unlimited energy yet i never see anything past the article. these discoveries need to be applied.
  • 1337chic, on 06/14/2008, -5/+141Can you imagine the looks on the Arabs faces when we tell them we've replaced them with petrol ***** bugs?
  • oINS1GHT, on 06/14/2008, -5/+115Holy *****...?
  • Barbrady, on 06/14/2008, -5/+88No *****?
  • ralphthemagi, on 06/15/2008, -6/+80That's what SHE said!
  • dion3537, on 06/14/2008, -4/+74Hopefully by the time I'm a father, I can feed my kids wood chips and they can fuel my car with their poo.
  • Jenadae, on 06/14/2008, -4/+67Wow this really is ***** HUGE!
  • EarlOfLade, on 06/15/2008, -2/+60Mehhh..
    I eat one onion and produce several cubic yards of natural gas.
  • crapmatic, on 06/15/2008, -0/+44Most of the time, it's called "milking the investors".
  • RandyGandy, on 06/15/2008, -0/+41anyone sick of people sticking 2.0 at the end of some development in a area?
  • aladrin, on 06/15/2008, -0/+41It wasn't built on rumors, either.
  • FoxOrian, on 06/15/2008, -0/+39I hope we invent cute animals like nibbler in the future that excrete steaming piles of starship fuel.
  • inactive, on 06/14/2008, -3/+37those complaining about this not being environmentally friendly need to read the article.

    "The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made. "
  • Coven, on 06/15/2008, -4/+37To a Digger? I find that hard to believe.
  • MrWhite7, on 06/15/2008, -1/+30What's a she?
  • jksturm, on 06/15/2008, -2/+31They'll pay billions for it and shelf it!
  • tatorheadmaster, on 06/14/2008, -3/+31Rome wasn't built in a day

    /cliche
  • Hefelumpman, on 06/14/2008, -5/+32The problem with fossil fuels is that they're taking carbon, that was buried underground, back into the atmosphere, increasing the net amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

    Bugs that eat waste and poop fuel are carbon neutral - they're not increasing the net amount of CO2 in the atmosphere because they're taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to create the petroleum.
  • nizzy1115, on 06/14/2008, -1/+27This is unreal.
  • Alex2, on 06/15/2008, -6/+32Now that we've run out of oil, we'll have to chop down trees to get sawdust to feed these bugs so we can drive logging trucks which help us to chop down trees.
  • xptoast, on 06/15/2008, -0/+25weigh*
  • Suprfire, on 06/15/2008, -3/+281. Find Waste
    2. OM NOM NOM NOM
    3. ???
    4. PROFIT!
  • mesasone, on 06/15/2008, -1/+26"Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal

    Ah yes, now the Mayan Apocalypse in 2012 makes sense.
  • xs650, on 06/15/2008, -1/+22My wife said that I am half way there.
  • KaJuN4, on 06/15/2008, -1/+22Tonight at 11, the UN announces a new '***** for Oil' campaign.
  • CrushThemTorg, on 06/15/2008, -0/+21OilPoopBug 2.0 is the hottest thing since AJAX.
  • feliks2, on 06/15/2008, -0/+20Yeah, must've taken them a whole week or so.
  • KingGorilla, on 06/15/2008, -2/+21Hopefully it doesn't way as much as a thousand suns
  • beermaker, on 06/15/2008, -0/+19Anyone think this is a way to prevent future fuel wars, because i do.
  • EarlOfLade, on 06/15/2008, -7/+27*yawn*

    Wake me up when they have created bacteria that eat my ***** and produce gold...
  • tatorheadmaster, on 06/14/2008, -7/+25This is amazing, scientifically. Practically not so great, as even renewable oil isn't clean energy.
  • radarplane, on 06/15/2008, -3/+21I'm pretty sure I pooped oil once.
  • Coven, on 06/15/2008, -1/+19Now we'll just have future bacteria wars.
  • MrWhite7, on 06/15/2008, -0/+18I'd like to know about 24 hours in advance so I can sell my gold...
  • Ganja420, on 06/15/2008, -0/+17Yes, *****
  • 1337chic, on 06/14/2008, -3/+18"After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”."

    Um. . . Did he read that book?
  • SilverBack101, on 06/14/2008, -1/+15Wow. Why don't you start goose stepping next and burn a cross on some colored guys lawn?
  • bc289, on 06/15/2008, -3/+16This is exactly why I think high oil prices is a good thing. You can see the huge opportunities and incentives it's creating to find a better source of energy. Low oil prices keep us dependent on oil and reduces the incentive to find something more green.
  • subxero37, on 06/15/2008, -0/+13From the storyline for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (on the MSX2 computer) --
    "Such steps proved unnecessary when Czech scientist, Dr. Kio Marv, successfully bio-engineered a new species of algae, OILIX, that could produce petroleum-grade hydrocarbons with little expense and effort."

    This is the coolest thing ever.

    And the Digg textbox is still f*cking broken under Firefox. Both 2 and 3. It's even difficult to click the "Submit" button because the bastard keeps jumping around.
  • innocentsinner, on 06/15/2008, -0/+13Yea, I hear that each pound of it weighs over ten thousand pounds!
  • awesometastic1, on 06/15/2008, -3/+16this is awesome! People act like the gas hike has been a bad thing, but all it's really done is put a lot of funding in the hands of scientists to come up with alternate energy sources which needed to happen. I hope gas prices reach $10+ per gallon. (and for the record due to my proximity to work I spend about $600 a month on gas and am just above the poverty line in terms of income, so the gas price hike has a great effect on me, but I still think it's a good thing :-)
  • bcardarella, on 06/14/2008, -4/+16It would be great if they could do the same with PCBs. Creating a bacteria that can break down PCBs would be the invention of our lifetimes.
  • MrWhite7, on 06/15/2008, -1/+13you're typing this in an open field using your solar powered laptop and tin can string internet connection then?
  • gmiley, on 06/15/2008, -0/+12According to the article, which may or may not be true, the entire process is carbon negative. The plants absorb more carbon than what is emitted when the final product is burned. Definitely a large step in the right direction if you ask me.
  • prozacjack, on 06/14/2008, -0/+11If you read the article it claims that these bugs (genetically modified E.Coli, which is scary enough in itself) produce carbon negative oil. This means that more carbon goes into making the oil than is released by burning the oil.
  • brstilson, on 06/15/2008, -0/+11Biological material could be waste products. Think extreme composting. It would solve two problems at once.
  • slightlygifted, on 06/15/2008, -0/+10black gold.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 405 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.