Fungus Replicates Diesel Fuel

From NPR 11/04/08 ©2008 Stephen Sakai ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Scientist Discovers Fungus That Could Fuel A Car by Alex Chadwick Day to Day, November 4, 2008 · A researcher at Montana State University has found a micro-organism in a plant in South America that could fuel vehicles one day. The unusual fungus contains the essence of diesel, which one could use to run a bus, for example, without processing it at all. Professor Gary Strobel discusses his findings on "myco-diesel," which are being published Wednesday in The Journal of Microbiology in London. Dr. Strobel made the discovery by chance, while collecting fungus from the stem of a tree in an old forest in southern Chile. When he finally got around to sending it off for sophisticated analysis — years later — he discovered that this version of Gliocladium wasn't like others he'd encountered before. "I've scoured the earth for not only organisms like Gliocladium, but many other endophytes [a plant that lives in the tissue of another plant]. I've been to almost every rainforest on the planet," he tells Alex Chadwick. But, "in over 50 years, I've never seen anything like that." Why would a fungus create diesel? Essentially to protect from plant invaders, he says. He also discusses a brief scandal in his past that involved chainsawing trees and trashing an EPA document. As reported by National Public Radio 4652 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90027 1 323 300 1133 1 323 896 3421 Free MLS Search