By: Chelsea Olson Hour: 2
A team of researchers from the University of Exeter and the support of Shell made turning a special type of E. Coli bacteria into diesel fuel. The new fuel produced is almost identical to ordinary diesel fuel from the gas station but it does not need to be mixed with as mant petroleum products. The diesel fuel can also be used with current cars and vehicles because the pipelines, infrastructure, and engine does not need to be changed to work with the new fuel. A profesor from the project says that the goal the entire time of this project was to create a new fuel that would work with current vehicles and they have successfully achieved this goal. By using this fuel, the workers on the project hope to eliminate 80% of greenhouse gases from the air by 2050. Rob Lee from Shell Projects and Technology says that he thinks this fuel will be in very high demand for the future and is proud of the work being accomplished. He hopes that it will meet the growing global needs of transport fuel and that it will also diminish carbon dioxide emissions going into the environment.
Themes of Nature of Science:
1. Science is collaborative: A team of researchers came together to help discover that the bacteria came become diesel fuel.
2. Coonflicts within the scientific community: Some scientists might argue that this isn't the correct way we should be using this special strand of bacteria.
3. Importance of repeatability: If you repeat the procedure for this test more times, you will hopefully find that it creates more diesel fuel and it can be repeated numerous times.
Link to the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130422154911.htm
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