Bacteria from sponges make new pharmaceuticals

Marine sponges are a rich source of chemical compounds; soem of them may have medicinal qualities. Researchers from the University college Berkley in California found.Presently only 0.1 to 1 percent of these can be artificially made in the lab. They are trying to increase this.

K.S.Parthasarathy

Public release date: 3-Sep-2007


Contact: Lucy Goodchild
l.goodchild@sgm.ac.uk
44-011-898-81843
Society for General Microbiology
Bacteria from sponges make new pharmaceuticals

Thousands of interesting new compounds have been discovered inside the bodies of marine sponges according to scientists speaking today (Tuesday 4 September 2007) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, which runs from 3-6 September 2007.

Over half of the bodyweight of living sea sponges – including the sort that we use in our baths – is made up of the many different bacteria that live inside them, in the same way that we all have bacteria living in our guts which help us to digest our food.

“Marine sponges are the most prolific and important source of new active compounds discovered in the last twenty or thirty years in our seas. We thought it likely that many of the interesting new compounds we were discovering inside sea sponges were actually being made by the bacteria inside their bodies, not the sponges themselves”, says Dr Detmer Sipkema of University College Berkeley, in California, USA.

Unfortunately the scientists discovered that it is very difficult to grow these bacteria in the laboratory, as the environment inside a sponge is significantly different from conditions in the surrounding seawater. Currently, only between one in a hundred and one in a thousand types of bacteria can be cultured artificially.

“We are trying to culture the other 99% by simulating the microenvironment in the sponge where the bacteria live”, says Dr Sipkema. “The next step will be to identify which bacteria are responsible for the production of the most medically interesting compounds and try to culture these on a larger scale. Most attempts to properly test these important bioactive compounds in hospital patients have failed because doctors simply cannot get enough of the products to prove that the clinical trials are effective or safe”.

So far, by trying a lot of different cultivation methods, the scientists have been successful in culturing about 10% of the different sorts of bacteria that live in the sponges.

As well as their attempt to produce useful pharmaceutical compounds on a commercial scale, the researchers believe that successfully culturing these little known bacteria will give new insights into evolution.

“Marine sponges were the first multicellular organisms to evolve on earth that are still alive. This implies that the relationship between the sponge and its bacterial inhabitants may also be very old”, says Dr Detmer Sipkema. “Therefore sponges are interesting to study the evolution of symbiosis, teaching us about the way different organisms have developed their mutual relationships”.
###

Notes to News Editors:
For further information contact Dr Detmer Sipkema, Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley, tel: +1 510 642 8060, fax: +1 510 643 1228, email: detmer@berkeley.edu

Dr Sipkema is presenting the paper ‘Artificial symbiosis: isolation, identification and growth of marine sponge bacterial symbionts’ at 1100 on Tuesday 04 September 2007 in the Physiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics Group session of the 161st Meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, 03 - 06 September 2007.

For press enquiries during the meeting please contact the SGM desk on +44 (0) 131 650 4581 or mobile telephone +44 (0) 7824 88 30 10

For enquiries prior to the meeting contact Lucy Goodchild at the SGM office, tel: +44 (0) 118 988 1843, fax: +44 (0) 118 988 5656, email: l.goodchild@sgm.ac.uk

Full programme details of this meeting can be found on the Society's website at: http://www.sgm.ac.uk/meetings/MTGPAGES/Edinburgh07.cfm. Hard copies are available on request from the SGM.

The Society for General Microbiology is the largest microbiology society in Europe, and has over 5,500 members worldwide. The Society provides a common meeting ground for scientists working in research and in fields with applications in microbiology including medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmaceuticals, industry, agriculture, food, the environment and education.

The SGM represents the science and profession of microbiology to government, the media and the general public; supporting microbiology education at all levels; and encouraging careers in microbiology.

Viruses to treat bactrial diseases

Viruses can be made to treat bacterial diseases. Ths targetted treatment will spare useful bacteria.

K.S.Parthasarathy
Public release date: 2-Sep-2007

Contact: Lucy Goodchild
l.goodchild@sgm.ac.uk
44-011-898-81843
Society for General Microbiology
New viruses to treat bacterial diseases -- 'My enemies' enemy is my friend'

Viruses found in the River Cam in Cambridge, famous as a haunt of students in their punts on long, lazy summer days, could become the next generation of antibiotics, according to scientists speaking today (Monday 3 September 2007) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, which runs from 3-6 September 2007.

With antibiotics now over-prescribed for treatments of bacterial infections, and patients failing to complete their courses of treatment properly, many bacteria are able to pick up an entire array of antibiotic resistance genes easily by swapping genetic material with each other.

MRSA – the multiple drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus - and newly emerging strains of the superbug Clostridium difficile have forced medical researchers to realise that an entirely different approach is required to combat these bacteria.

“By using a virus that only attacks bacteria, called a phage – and some phages only attack specific types of bacteria – we can treat infections by targeting the exact strain of bacteria causing the disease”, says Ana Toribio from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. “This is much more targeted than conventional antibiotic therapy”.

The scientists used a close relative of Escherichia coli, the bacterium that commonly causes food poisoning and gastrointestinal infections in humans, called Citrobacter rodentium, which has exactly the same gastrointestinal effects in mice. They were able to treat the infected mice with a cocktail of phages obtained from the River Cam that target C. rodentium. At present they are optimizing the selection of the viruses by DNA analysis to utilise phage with different profiles.

“Using phages rather than traditional broad-spectrum antibiotics, which essentially try to kill all bacteria they come across, is much better because they do not upset the normal microbial balance in the body”, says Dr Derek Pickard from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. “We all need good bacteria to help us fight off infections, to digest our food and provide us with essential nutrients, and conventional antibiotics can kill these too, while they are fighting the disease-causing bacteria”

Phage based treatment has been largely ignored until recently in Western Europe and the USA. The main human clinical reports have come from Eastern Europe, particularly the Tbilisi Bacteriophage Institute in Georgia where bacteriophages are used for successful treatment of infections such as diabetic ulcers and wounds. More studies are planned along western clinical trial lines with all the standards required.

“The more we can develop the treatment and understand the obstacles encountered in using this method to treat gut infections, the more likely we are to maximise its chance of success in the long term”, says Ana Toribio. “We have found that using a variety of phages to treat one disease has many benefits over just using one phage type to attack a dangerous strain of bacteria, overcoming any potential resistance to the phage from bacterial mutations”.

“This brings us back to the problem we are trying to address in the first place. If anything, conventional antibiotic treatment has led to MRSA and other superbug infections becoming not only more prevalent but also more infectious and dangerous. Bacteriophage therapy offers an alternative that needs to be taken seriously in Western Europe”, says Derek Pickard.
###

Notes to News Editors:
For further information contact Dr Derek Pickard, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridgeshire, tel: 01223 495391, fax: 01223 494919, email: djp@sanger.ac.uk

Ms Toribio is presenting the poster ‘Citrobacter rodentium phage: Characterization and screening for phage therapy applications’ at 1520 on Monday 03 September 2007 in the Environmental Microbiology Group session of the 161st Meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, 03 - 06 September 2007.

For press enquiries during the meeting please contact the SGM desk on +44 (0) 131 650 4581 or mobile telephone +44 (0) 7824 88 30 10

For enquiries prior to the meeting contact Lucy Goodchild at the SGM office, tel: +44 (0) 118 988 1843, fax: +44 (0) 118 988 5656, email: l.goodchild@sgm.ac.uk

Full programme details of this meeting can be found on the Society's website at: http://www.sgm.ac.uk/meetings/MTGPAGES/Edinburgh07.cfm. Hard copies are available on request from the SGM.

The Society for General Microbiology is the largest microbiology society in Europe, and has over 5,500 members worldwide. The Society provides a common meeting ground for scientists working in research and in fields with applications in microbiology including medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmaceuticals, industry, agriculture, food, the environment and education.

The SGM represents the science and profession of microbiology to government, the media and the general public; supporting microbiology education at all levels; and encouraging careers in microbiology.

Pets! please keep away from smokers

Pets get hurt by second hand smoke. Tuft College of Veterinary Medicine found a strong correlation between secondhand smoke and certain forms of cancer in cats. Believe it or not smoke has been associated with oral cancer and lymphoma in cats, lung and nasal cancer in dogs, as well as lung cancer in birds.Short and medium nose dogs have a higher occurrence of lung cancer. This is because their shorter nasal passages aren’t as effective at accumulating the inhaled secondhand smoke carcinogens.Smoke particles laced with carcinogens get deposited in their lungs

Birds exposed to smoke pneumonia or lung cancer; other risks include eye, skin, heart and fertility problems.

K.S.Parthasarathy


Public release date: 31-Aug-2007

Contact: Trisha Gedon
trisha.gedon@okstate.edu
405-744-3625
Oklahoma State University
Secondhand smoke is a health threat to pets
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/osu-ssi083107.php

It has been in the news for years about how secondhand smoke is a health threat to nonsmokers. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that secondhand smoke is attributed with killing thousands of adult nonsmokers annually.

If smoking is that harmful to human beings, it would make sense that secondhand smoke would have an adverse effect on pets that live in the homes of smokers, said Dr. Carolynn MacAllister, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service veterinarian.

“There have been a number of scientific papers recently that have reported the significant health threat secondhand smoke poses to pets,” MacAllister said. “Secondhand smoke has been associated with oral cancer and lymphoma in cats, lung and nasal cancer in dogs, as well as lung cancer in birds.”

She said a study conducted recently at Tuft College of Veterinary Medicine found a strong correlation between secondhand smoke and certain forms of cancer in cats. The number of cats with mouth cancer, also known as squamous cell carcinoma, was higher for those animals living in smoking environments versus those felines living in a smoke-free home. In addition, cats that lived with smokers for five or more years had an even higher incidence of this type of oral cancer.

“One reason cats are so susceptible to secondhand smoke is because of their grooming habits. Cats constantly lick themselves while grooming, therefore they lick up the cancer-causing carcinogens that accumulate on their fur,” MacAllister said. “This grooming behavior exposes the mucous membrane of their mouth to the cancer-causing carcinogens.”

Malignant lymphoma is another type of cancer that cats that live with smokers have a higher risk of getting. This cancer occurs in the lymph nodes and cats are twice as likely to have this type of cancer compared to cats living in a non-smoking home. This form of cancer is fatal to three out of four cats within 12 months of developing the cancer.

MacAllister also pointed out that secondhand smoke is greatly associated with the increased occurrence of cancer in the nose and sinus area among dogs. Research also indicates a slight association with lung cancer.

“A recent study conducted at Colorado State University shows that there is a higher incidence of nasal tumors in dogs living in a home with secondhand smoke compared to dogs living in a smoke free environment,” she said. “The increased incidence was specifically found among the long nosed breed of dogs. Shorter or medium nosed dogs showed higher rates for lung cancer.”

MacAllister said the longer nosed breeds of dogs have a great surface area in their noses that is exposed to the carcinogens. This also provides more area in which the carcinogens can accumulate. The carcinogens tend to build up on the mucous membranes of long nosed dogs so not as much reaches the lungs.

Unfortunately, dogs affected with nasal cancer normally do not survive more than one year.

“The reason short and medium nose dogs have a higher occurrence of lung cancer is because their shorter nasal passages aren’t as effective at accumulating the inhaled secondhand smoke carcinogens,” she said. “This results in more carcinogens reaching the lungs.”

Pet birds also are victims of secondhand smoke. A bird’s respiratory system is hypersensitive to any type of pollutant in the air.

MacAllister said the most serious consequences of secondhand smoke exposure in birds are pneumonia or lung cancer. Other health risks include eye, skin, heart and fertility problems.

Secondhand smoke is not the only danger faced by pets that live in smoke filled environments. Poisoning is another risk they face.

“Curious pets can eat cigarettes and other tobacco products if the products aren’t stored properly,” MacAllister said. “When ingested, this can cause nicotine poisoning, which can be fatal.”

It is important, both for the health of pets and others living in the household, that the smoker has a designated area in which to smoke that is physically separated from the home. In addition, always keep cigarettes, cigarette butts and other tobacco products put away.

“A better choice that could enhance your chances of enjoying a healthier lifestyle with your family and pets would be to stop smoking altogether,” MacAllister said.

###

Oklahoma State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local Governments Cooperating: The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or status as a veteran, and is an equal opportunity employer.

Remove biofilms, make food safer

The following news brief is about a book dealing with food hygiene, an important issue. It reminds me about last year's news stories in USA following the contamination of E.Coli.Microorganisms while residing on foodstuffs create a thin film on them. If we could remove the film, we can make foods safer.

K.S.Parthasarathy






Public release date: 27-Aug-2007


Contact: Phyllis Picklesimer
p-pickle@uiuc.edu
217-244-2827
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Banishing biofilms: loosening their grip could make food supply safer

If you could see a piece of celery that’s been magnified 10,000 times, you’d know what the scientists fighting foodborne pathogens are up against, said University of Illinois microbiologist Hans Blaschek.

“It’s like looking at a moonscape, full of craters and crevices. And many of the pathogens that cause foodborne illness, such as Shigella, E. coli, and Listeria, make sticky, sugary biofilms that get down in these crevices, stick like glue, and hang on like crazy.

“Scientists and people in the food industry are intensely interested in how these biofilms form and behave. Understanding how they work could lead to targeted approaches for their prevention and removal,” he said.

The sales figures for his new book Biofilms in the Food Environment certainly support that sense of urgency. Blaschek says the book contains the accumulated wisdom of academics who study biofilms and industry food scientists who battle them on the front lines daily.

According to Blaschek, the problem faced by produce suppliers can be a triple whammy. “If you’re unlucky enough to be dealing with a pathogen--and the pathogen has the additional attribute of being able to form biofilms—and you’re dealing with a food product that’s minimally processed, well, you’re triply unlucky,” the scientist said.

“You may be able to scrub the organism off the surface, but the cells in these biofilms are very good at aligning themselves in the subsurface areas of produce.

“Over time, the sticky cells of the biofilm form on top of each other, creating a microenvironment that behaves more like a multicelled organism. And all these little bacterial cells communicate with each other. They’re fascinating really; unfortunately, they can also be deadly,” he said.

Blaschek says the biofilms book has generated a lot of interest from the food industry. “It’s really a comprehensive reference source for industry scientists, university researchers, and regulatory agencies. In particular, food engineers who design strategies and cleaning procedures for produce need to understand how biofilms form and behave so they can develop better protocols for removing them,” he said.

“There’s an interesting discussion of the correlation between a strain’s virulence and its biofilm-forming abilities, information about cutting-edge technologies to investigate microbial compositions in biofilm ecosystems and cell-to-cell interaction, and updated findings on the molecular attributes and mechanisms involved in biofilm development,” he said.

“It’s a very applied kind of approach, connecting the research that’s being done in labs across the country with the needs of food technologists,” he added.
###

Co-edited by Blaschek, The Ohio State University’s Hua H. Wang, and food industry scientist Meredith Agle, Biofilms in the Food Environment is available from Blackwell Publishing.

A U of I study on removal of Shigella biofilms by M. E. Agle, S. E. Martin, and H. P. Blaschek was published in volume 68, no. 5, of the Journal of Food Protection. Chapters by former U of I doctoral student Agle in Biofilms in the Food Environment are “Biofilms in the Food Industry” and “Shigella: Survival on Produce and Biofilm Formation.” Agle’s U of I research was funded by a fellowship from the USDA National Needs program.

US nuclear neighbours no more NIMBY

Public started looking at nuclear power plants more benignly now according to a survey commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear power advocacy group in USA.
Dr K.S.Parthasarathy

WNN
World Nuclear News

NUCLEAR POLICIES
US nuclear neighbours not nimby

21 August 2007

Eighty-two per cent of people living close to US nuclear power plants are in favour of nuclear energy and 71% would be willing to see a new reactor near them, a new public opinion survey has found.

The telephone survey polled 1100 adults across the USA, all living within 10 miles (16 km) of a nuclear power plant but not employed by electric companies. Eighty-six per cent of respondents gave their local nuclear plant a 'high' safety rating and 87% declared their confidence that the operating company could run the plant safely.

The survey was carried out by Bisconti Research, whose president Ann Bisconti noted: "Nimby (not in my back yard) does not apply at existing plant sites because close neighbours have a positive view of nuclear energy, are familiar with the plant, and believe that the plant benefits the community."

When faced with the question: "If a new power plant were needed to supply electricity, would it be acceptable to you... to add a new nuclear reactor at the site of the nearest nuclear power plant?" 71% of all respondents said it would be acceptable. Twenty-six per cent felt it would not be acceptable and three per cent voted 'don't know'. These figures changed to 77% in favour and only 20% against in communities where steps are already underway to build new reactors.

The strong support for new reactors among residents already living near nuclear plants was welcomed by Scott Peterson, Vice President for Communications at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the US nuclear industry policy organization. "This bodes well for the prospect of new plant construction, particularly for those companies considering adding new reactors at existing nuclear plant sites," he said.

The survey, which included adults living near each of the 64 nuclear power plant sites in the USA, was commissioned by the NEI, and comes at a time when US power companies are embarking on a new regulatory process for licensing new plants. Seventeen companies have announced plans to file licence applications for up to 31 reactors to be built over the next 10-15 years. Four applications for Early Site Permits (ESP) have already been submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), all to assess the suitability of existing reactor sites for possible new construction projects. The NRC received the first part of the construction and operating licence (COL) application for a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs site in Maryland in July and anticipates up to another seven applications covering 12 units by the end of 2007.

Further information

Nuclear Energy Institute
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

WNA's US Nuclear Power Industry information paper

WNN: NRC: First part of COL application in

Thin layer solar cell will bring cheaper "green" power

SOLAR POWER

Scientists believe that thin-layer PV cells would be used to make solar panels that could be fitted to roofs to help power homes with any surplus electricity being fed back to The National Grid. If successful it will lead to cheaper electric power and less reliance on fossil power technology

K.S.Parthasarathy
Public release date: 23-Aug-2007
Contact: Alex Thomas
media.relations@durham.ac.uk
01-913-346-075
Durham University
'Thin-layer' solar cells may bring cheaper 'green' power

Scientists are researching new ways of harnessing the sun’s rays which could eventually make it cheaper for people to use solar energy to power their homes.

The experts at Durham University are developing light-absorbing materials for use in the production of thin-layer solar photovoltaic (PV) cells which are used to convert light energy into electricity.

The four-year project involves experiments on a range of different materials that would be less expensive and more sustainable to use in the manufacturing of solar panels.

Thicker silicon-based cells and compounds containing indium, a rare and expensive metal, are more commonly used to make solar panels today.

The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) SUPERGEN Initiative, focuses on developing thin-layer PV cells using materials such as copper indium diselenide and cadmium telluride.

Right now the project is entering a new phase for the development of cheaper and more sustainable variants of these materials.

The Durham team is also working on manipulating the growth of the materials so they form a continuous structure which is essential for conducting the energy trapped by solar panels before it is turned into usable electricity. This will help improve the efficiency of the thin-layer PV cells.

It’s hoped that the development of more affordable thin-film PV cells could lead to a reduction in the cost of solar panels for the domestic market and an increase in the use of solar power.

Solar power currently provides less than one hundredth of one percent of the UK’s home energy needs.

The thin-layer PV cells would be used to make solar panels that could be fitted to roofs to help power homes with any surplus electricity being fed back to The National Grid.

This could lead to cheaper fuel bills and less reliance on burning fossil fuels as a way of helping to generate electricity.

Professor Ken Durose, Director of the Durham Centre for Renewable Energy, who is leading the research, said: “One of the main issues in solar energy is the cost of materials and we recognise that the cost of solar cells is slowing down their uptake.

“If solar panels were cheap enough so you could buy a system off the shelf that provided even a fraction of your power needs you would do it, but that product isn’t there at the moment.

“The key indicator of cost effectiveness is how many pounds do you have to spend to get a watt of power out"

“If you can make solar panels more cheaply then you will have a winning product.”

To aid its research the university has taken delivery of a £1.7 million suite of high powered electron microscopes, funded by the Science Research Investment Fund, which have nano-scale resolution allowing scientists to see the effects that currently limit the performance of solar cells.

One of the microscopes is the first of its kind in the UK and Professor Durose said: “This instrument will put the North East right out in front.

“We are working on new ideas in renewable energy and this opens up tremendous opportunities in research.”

Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria universities, The New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC), in Blyth, and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), in Wilton, have formed a consortium to bid to host the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) in the North East.

The Consortium bidding to host the Energy technologies Institute (ETI) in NorthEast England, has been named as one of three short-listed finalists to host the headquarters of this national centre, which will be responsible for the allocation of approximately £1bn of private and public research funds into renewable and low carbon energy.

The North East Consortium will now face competition from Scotland and the Midlands, at a final selection presentation in London on September 6th. Made up of representatives from industry sponsors and Government, the selection panel will then make their recommendation to the ETI board, with the host location to be formally announced in early October.

Mark Pearson Energy and Process Innovation Manager at One NorthEast, a member of the ETI bid team commented: “This announcement by Durham University highlights the strength in depth we have in energy research and development in the North East, and the opportunities and change this can generate in our regional economy and built environment.

“Our bid to host the ETI recognises our capability across the region to make this initiative a success for the UK.”
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Net energy, a useless, misleading and dangerous metric, says expert

An original and thought-provoking concept from Professor Bruce Dale
K.S.Parthasarathy

Public release date: 8-Aug-2007
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Contact: Jennifer Beal
wbnewseurope@wiley.co.uk
44-012-437-70633
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Net energy -- a useless, misleading and dangerous metric, says expert

As oil becomes scarce, the world needs new transportation fuels. As new fuel options develop we need means of assessing which are most effective at replacing petroleum. So far many scientists have used a measure called ‘net energy’. However, Professor Bruce Dale from Michigan State University claims, “Net energy analysis is simple and has great intuitive appeal, but it is also dead wrong and dangerously misleading – net energy must be eliminated from our discourse.” Dale’s perspective is published in the first edition of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining.

Instead, Dale recommends comparing fuels by assessing how much petroleum fuel each can replace, or by calculating how much CO2 each produces per km driven.

A fuel’s ‘net energy’ is calculated by attempting to assess how much energy a new fuel supplies, and then subtracting the energy supplied by fossil fuels needed to create the new fuel. The calculation is often carried out in a way that leaves grain ethanol with a net energy of -29%, giving the impression that it uses more fossil fuels to produce it that the new fuel supplies. Dale claims that this figure is then used by opponents of biofuels to pour scorn on the new products.

The problem with net energy, says Dale, is that it makes an assumption that all sources of energy (oil, coal, gas etc) have equal value. “This assumption is completely wrong – all energy sources are not equal – one unit of energy from petrol is much more useful than the same amount of energy in coal…and that makes petrol much more valuable,” says Dale.

For evidence, he points to the markets, where a unit of energy from gas, petrol and electricity are worth 3.5, 5 and 12 times as much as a unit of energy from coal, respectively.

“Clear thinking shows that we value the services that energy can perform, not the energy per se, so it would be better to compare fuels by the services that each provides…not on a straight energy basis…which is likely to be irrelevant and misleading,” says Dale.

For example, biofuels could be rated on how much petroleum use they can displace or their greenhouse gas production compared with petroleum. His calculations indicate that every MJ of ethanol can displace 28 MJ of petroleum, in other words ethanol greatly extends our existing supplies of petroleum. Using corn ethanol provides an 18% reduction in greenhouse gasses compared with petrol, while fibre-produced ethanol gives a 88% reduction compared to petrol.

“As we embark on this brave new world of alternative fuels we need to develop metrics that provide proper and useful comparisons, rather than simply using analyses that are simple and intuitively appealing, but give either no meaningful information, or worse still, information that misleads us and misdirects our efforts to develop petroleum replacements,” says Dale.

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