Awesome new technology

I just read something in April's Popular Science magazine about Amyris Biotechnologies out there in Emeryville, CA. They are testing a new idea they have come up with that sounds and looks pretty awesome so far. They are making a genetically manipulated bacteria that can be used to produce a good old fashioned gasoline. A carbon-neutral gas at that.

A professor Keasling out there at Berkeley said, so perfectly, in my opinion, "...today's gasoline engines are powerful machines finely tuned by decades of engineering and innovation. Why give them up if we don't have to?"

Jack Newman, the co-founder of Amyris, and his colleagues agree that, as I have said for a while now (glad to hear someone else say it), no single technology is going to solve our energy woes. This cool new technology would still only fuel a fraction of the cars, if mass-produced. However, it would be more worthy, in my opinion, of investing time and money in.

Ethanol, for example, can't be used in existing pipelines because it is so corrosive and, as a few knowledgeable sources have said, if all the corn in the U.S. was used for ethanol, it would still only support a mere 10 or 12% of our appetite for fuel.

Ok, I will stop now before I get to rambling. I'm tired.

Listening to: Crush, by Dave Matthews

John