Champion hydrogen-producing microbe
Inside a small cabinet the size of a dorm refrigerator in one of Himadri B. Pakrasi's labs, a blue-green soup percolates in thick glass bottles under the cool light of red, blue and green LEDS. This isn't just any soup, however. It is a soup of champions.
The soup is colored by a strain of blue-green bacteria that bubble off roughly 10 times the hydrogen gas produced by their nearest competitors -- in part because of their unique genetic endowment but also in part because of tricks the scientists have played on their metabolism.
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