Engingeering Brewer's Yeast to Produce Diesel

Beer? Not quite. Try fermented sugar water that produced diesel instead of alcohol

A recent hour long BBC documentary called Playing God showcases cutting edge science concerning the production of synthetic organisms that can help produce things in ways that nature cannot. The first example are the 'spider goats' which are normal goats but they were created to be able to produce one extra little protein in their milk, the same protein that is spider silk, that when extracted, can be turned into this spider silk, a thread that is stronger than anything we can produce.

I was surprised when they mentioned the manipulation of Brewer's Yeast. The way the yeast basically works is that you feed yeast a sugary water and it produces CO2 and alcohol. In beer we allow the CO2 to pass through an airlock, and the liquid becomes alcoholic, and we drink the alcoholic beverage in a pint glass.

Under the microscope: Diesel rising to the top of the fermenting sugar water

The documentary takes us to a synthetic biology lab where scientists have engineered brewer's yeast to produce diesel instead of