Health & Science

A fungus that makes fuel; Hiding astronauts in a bubble; Why bullies bully; Bacteria prefer women; TV can encourage promiscuity

A fungus that makes fuel

Why drill for fuel when you can grow it instead? On a trek through the rain forests of Patagonia, plant pathologist Gary Strobel noticed a red-colored fungus he’d never seen before. When he examined the new species, Gliocladium roseum, he detected a strong-smelling gas. He brought the fungus to the lab to test it for antibiotic properties, but found something entirely unexpected: The fungus was “breathing” out an array of hydrocarbons—the same combustible compounds found in oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel. When he realized what the fungus was producing, Strobel tells Discovery News, “every hair on my arms stood on end.” The fungus makes hydrocarbons as a waste product after consuming common cellulose, the stringy plant fiber used to make paper. It’s a simple, one-step process, unlike that for most biofuels, which have to be processed and distilled. Strobel says G. roseum could be grown in factories like baker’s yeast, rather than taking up a lot of farmland, with its gases siphoned off and turned into fuel. That process “would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment,” Strobel says.

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