Can Microbes Save Us from Fossil Fuels?
While success in this project may be years in the making, Venter has already plotted his next move. Once the synthetic bacterium has been created, the IBEA team hopes to add genes that will allow the new microbe to perform useful work. One idea is to create an organism that will generate clean-burning fuel, such as hydrogen gas, as a by-product of its metabolism. Or perhaps a bacterium could be engineered to absorb carbon dioxide, the “greenhouse gas” pollutant believed to be a major cause of global warming. The idea that we might be able to generate organisms that will solve our most vexing fuel and pollution problems is tantalizing. Hydrogen fuel, which burns in oxygen to produce only clean water as a by-product, is being seriously studied as a fuel of the future. Extensive use of hydrogen fuel could drastically reduce acid rain, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollution, but right now hydrogen fuel is too costly to produce. Creating an organism that would eat garbage and produce l
