MTS51- James Liao - Turning Microbes into Fuel Refineries
Meet the Microbiologist
English - June 02, 2010 17:21 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratingsLife Sciences Science Natural Sciences Homepage Download IPFS Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: MTS50.5 - The Making of the Meet the Scientist Podcast
In this podcast I talk to James Liao, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. I spoke to Dr. Liao about his research into engineering microbes to make fuel.
Today, we get most of the fuel for our cars out of the ground. It's a process fraught with dangerous consequences, from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the rise in global temperatures thanks to greenhouse gases. Dr. Liao is among a growing number of scientists who think that microbes can help us out of this predicament.
We talked about the attraction of microbe-derived fuels, and the challenges of getting bacteria to turn air, water, and sun into something that can power your car.
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