Modified bacterial fungicides may propel the planes of the future

a problem. Though, at 2.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions, it is not a huge contributor to global warming, it is a high-profile one forecast to get bigger. are happening, including work towards using batteries or hydrogen for short-haul flights. made from biomass and waste products is already being used by some airlines. But what would solve the matter at a stroke is an all-new fuel, high in both environmental credentials and in energy density.The hunt is on, then, for ways to make such a thing cheaply and from green feedstocks. And a group from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, think they have one. As they write in , Pablo Cruz-Morales and Jay Keasling have worked out how to create cyclopropane () rings, one of the energy-richest chemical structures found in hydrocarbons, using genetically engineered bacteria.