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07/04/2008: "Japanese scientists create diesel-producing algae"
Under the gleam of blinding lamps, engulfed by banks of angrily frothing flasks, Makoto Watanabe is plotting a slimy, lurid-green revolution. He has spent his life in search of a species of algae that efficiently "sweats" crude oil, and has finally found it.
Now, exploiting the previously unrecognised power of pondlife, Professor Watanabe dreams of transforming Japan from a voracious energy importer into an oil-exporting nation to rival any member of Opec.
The professor has given himself a decade to effect this seemingly implausible conversion: Japan’s export-led economics have always been shaped by their near 100 per cent dependence on foreign energy. In the present world economic climate, those economics are looking especially fragile.
"I believe I can change Japan within five years," the Professor told The Times from his laboratory in Tsukuba University. "A couple of years after that, we start changing the world."
[ Turning algae into diesel is a wonderful discovery! I am reminded of this scene about alchemy from Blackadder II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzG-AvlKBAA ]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133633.ece