E. coli’s better side

E. coli doesn’t sound like anything anyone would ask for, yet some scientists are turning it into energy. Jay Keasling of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute has been working with E. coli as an energy source and says its production could improve. While turning E. coli into energy has been proven in the lab, it doesn’t yet produce enough fuel for commercial viability.

A Reuters news story pointed out that E. coli bacteria is already being used to make plastics, ending up in products like carpets, but the technology is not one manufacturers tend to mention to the public.