Burp intrigue brings bling

A substantial grant has been awarded to a Swedish university looking to study the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by cattle when they burp. No kidding.

Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning has allocated $590,000 to the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala for the research into bovine belches. According to reports by The Associated Press, researchers are attempting to determine how the animals’ food affects the levels of methane they release.

Meanwhile, researchers at Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Hokkaido, Japan, claim to already have found a way to reduce the amount of gases produced by cattle. The group has obtained a patent for a process for feeding the animals a nitrate that greatly reduces the amount of methane releases, reported The Seattle Times.