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A bunch of Korean researchers have engineered a new strain of E. coli that produces a suitable substitute for gasoline. The bacteria can poop out petroleum. That's some good shit there!

Could this mean fossil fuels can be "renewed"? Bacteria has already proven that it can do a lot of wonderful things. From making your booze more booze like, and from producing everything from gold to diesel fuel, it can also produce ethanol, and other biofuels.

The new bioengineering process leverages existing E. coli strains. They produce Alkanes molecules, which they claim is a chemically identical replacement for the combination of short-chain hydrocarbons known as gasoline. From the Wall Street Journal:
When the modified E. coli were fed glucose, found in plants or other non-food crops, the enzymes they produced converted the sugar into fatty acids and then turned these into hydrocarbons that were chemically and structurally identical to those found in commercial fuel...
That's great! But the only problem here is that one liter of glucose can only produce 580 miligrams of gas, which is still highly unfavorable just yet. While the tech won't be powering your cars anytime soon. lets hope researchers find another way around this to make more with less. [Nature via Slashdot and WSJ]