Super-fermenting Fungus Genome Sequenced; To Be Harnessed For Improved Biofuels Production Science Daily — On the road to making biofuels more economically competitive with fossil fuels, there are significant potholes to negotiate. For cellulosic ethanol production, one major detour has being addressed with the characterization of the genetic blueprint of the fungus Pichia stipitis, by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and collaborators at the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL). 

(WCCO) Minneapolis As the president asked Americans to cut back on fossil fuels in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the University of Minnesota is leading the way.

U.S. energy research and development: Declining Investment, increasing need, and the feasibility of expansion (Gregory F. Nemet, Daniel M. Kammem) Elsevier Ltd.

Investment in energy research and development in the U.S. is declining despite calls for and enhancement of the nation’s capacity for innovation to address environmental, geopolitical, and macroeconomic concerns.

GOLDEN, Colo. — Thirty years after it was founded by President Jimmy Carter, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the edge of the Rockies here still does not have a cafeteria. 

Can algae save the world again? The microscopic green plants cleaned up the earth's atmosphere millions of years ago and scientists hope they can do it now by helping remove greenhouse gases and create new oil reserves.
 
In the distant past, algae helped turn the earth's then inhospitable atmosphere into one that could support modern life through photosynthesis, which plants use to turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugars and oxygen.