The gribble solution

摘要

Science is the never-ending quest to make what is remarkable one moment absolutely pedestrian the next. Inventions like light bulbs and the internal combustion engine rocked the collective consciousness of mankind, and yet now humans take such products for granted. It is with this in mind that a new report from a group of scientists in the UK should be considered. Scientists at the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Center at the Universities of York and Portsmouth now believe that a tiny nuisance worm known as the gribble could be key to unlocking the potential for liquid biofuels. Gribbles eat wood in coastal areas, plaguing ships, docks, piers and the like. The little buggers have an amazingly strong digestive system, which the researchers focused on, demonstrating that gribble digestive systems contains enzymes advantageous for converting wood and straw into liquid biofuels.