FOXNews.com – Fuel-Making Fungus Challenges Oil Creation Theory — Is it possible that the whole “fossil” fuel notion is bogus and this goop just keeps forming 24/7 forever? Quick, suppress this fast!!!
A newfound fungus living in rainforest trees makes biofuel more efficiently than any other known method, researchers say.
In fact, it’s so good at turning plant matter into fuel that researchers say their discovery calls into question the whole theory of how crude oil was made by nature in the first place.
While many crops and microbes can be combined to make biofuels — including the fungi that became infamous as jungle rot during World War II — the newfound fungus could greatly simplify the process, its discoverers claim.
Wow, now that we did the right thing, Manna from heaven!!!
Woo Woo!
Goodbye oversized corn farms, hello mold farms!!
Peak Oil? LOL
I can’t always tell when JCD is being sarcastic when he makes just a quick comment. Assuming he wasn’t making a joke, this discovery would in no way explain why the oil is being found in rock layers from long ago and not just hanging out in any ‘ole place.
Oil companies employ lots of geologists for a reason–they know where to look for the oil.
Sounds like someone doesn’t understand that you can’t make energy out of nothing. In order to get the equivalent energy in a barrel of oil (at 100% efficiency) out of ordinary plant material like grasses, about a ton of the stuff is required. Thus the huge amounts of corn needed to produce ethanol. Back to grade school for you!
I dimly remember an article a long time ago which detailed drilling to a depth that fossil fuels could not possibly have reached, oil was found in quantity at some enormous depth. Those writing and investigating this deep drilling site (believe it was Viet Nam)where oil was found, claimed that it dispelled the myth of oil being created by any process involving fossils.
It seems also to have a bearing on this fungus oil theory.
Science STILL progresses, NOT by proof, but by refutation. Bit like the George Bush has the answers theory, or, Banks know what they are doing, economically speaking.
Falsifiability rules OK.
To be honest however it has always confounded me that we are still pumping oil after all these years with some kind way it could be continually produced naturally. Maybe I don’t have a firm grasp of how big underground oil fields are but even so it’s really hard to imagine that their was that much organic matter that could have turned into oil during one particular disaster. Has anyone ever actually attempted to explore the underground oil fields other than just sticking pipes in the ground and sucking the stuff out?
It’s no great secret that oil is produced when organic matter is placed under great heat and pressure. That’s how the earth has been making oil for millions of years.
The catch is, we are consuming it faster that the earth can replenish it. So it doesn’t matter if the earth is continuously re-supplying the oil reserves. We are using it faster that it can be made.
The other catch is, we are now consuming it faster that it can be pumped out of the ground. That is what peak oil really means – we have reached the maximum production capacity. Even if there was an unlimited supply of oil in the ground, we can’t get it out of the ground fast enough!!
I’ve heard these theories that something deep in the ground is making oil for a long time. So, ok maybe it is, but if we’re using it faster than whatever down there is making it we still have a serious problem.
Damn, I was looking forward to it being quiet again, and kids being able to play in the streets.
Bio-fuels are just a stop gap measure. Eventually everything will have to be electrical and based on clean and renewable energy or our industrial society is toast.
#6,
Yeah, being critical of this because its solar potential no longer works.
First, not like corn, you don’t have to burn up half of it to make the starch into sugar (an irrelevant criticism anyhow now that ethanol grade sweet corn is coming online that is far more productive at making very sugary corn).
Second, this is fungus. You don’t need farm fields to make it. You only need plant matter. Farms could take their excess cellulose matter and get an extra income stream from it. For cellulose production there are crops that are far more efficient than corn.
But… If this is real, and you were retarded, I could see how you would be ideologically opposed to any form of energy production besides drilling and nuclear.
# 3 the answer said
Goodbye oversized corn farms, hello mold farms!!
Get out of my fridge!
😉
J/P=?
I met a guy at a friend’s party who was doing advance research on this…fascinating stuff…or is that goop? 🙂
I’ve been saying this for years; mother earth makes this stuff for us. Nevertheless the notion that we’re pumping it faster than can be replenished seems like common sense. We still need to invest in alternate sources and alternate propulsion and generation technology. Also, as far a global warming goes, whether it’s true or not, the stuff that comes out of our cars is still poison. And, we’re still pumping too much money out of the country to pay for this stuff. Let’s remove the hysteria and just simply do the right things for the right reasons.
This is some pretty good news.
For those that require a news source other than FOX because they are sooooo eeval. Try this you dolts.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2008/2008-11-04-02.asp
Strobel also found the fungus that produces taxol.
taxol… Obama’s budget plan was created by a fungus?
# 18 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, “Obama’s budget plan was created by a fungus?”
Don’t know. But, after reading it I wouldn’t doubt it.
Or, alternatively, try this reference:
http://www.physorg.com/news144958975.html
So it’s clear proof to Christian Fundamentalists that all the oil on earth was fungus-fabricated over the past 4000 years or so.
Eventual sign on a future Prius:
“Powered by Shrooms.”
Oil comes from a fungus and not from time and pressure being applied to decaying plant matter??? What about Coal. What about Diamonds. What about Oil Shell. Come on give me a break.
As you must have noticed by now, men in pointy high heeled boots are not noted for liking deep thinking or deep drilling. Where does oil come from? They don’t care to give it much thought. Over yonder in Russia, they haven’t thought of oil as a fossil fuel for decades. Trying those fancy foreign theories out has resulted in the discovery of huge oil deposits.
23 is so very close.
Look at a book called The Deep, Hot, Biosphere by Thomas Gold.
Oil from dinosaur bones is a fraud. Oil is poop from microbes that eat methane.
The only reason that we think of this as a non-renewable resource is that, hell, that makes it much more valuable.
PEAK OIL = FRAUD = BS
The classic quote is: the stone age didn’t end for lack of stones.
Oh yeah, Prius drivers, where does the vast majority of pollution come from? Burning coal!
Anyone plug into that yet?
#6, #13:
I’m a chemical engineer, as is John Dvorak.
This fungus won’t be an instant source of oil. Figuring all of this out may take years.
First the agronomists need to figure out what plant material these fungi can feed on, that doesn’t deplete the soil. That points to legumes like soybeans or even green beans but there may be other crops that are suitable (green cornstalks? silage?).
Also, the optimal conditions for growing the fungi on the feed stocks have to be figured out.
Separating oil from everything else has to be figured out as well, but shouldn’t be too difficult. Use the same processes that are in refineries, but with some changes to deal with water and undigested plant material.
Finally, there will be waste materials to recycle or maybe compost because not all plant material will be digestible by the fungi.
Since humans produce methane, it can’t be true it’s being produced under high pressure deep underground. I love pseudo science.
Don’t look for this to be even seriously thought about for the next few years.
Currently the farmers plow the left over plant material back into the soil. There it slowly biodegrades back into elements to be used by the next crop. It also hold water and nutrients in the soil so they aren’t flushed away. Without this recycling, the soil will be played out and turn to dust very quickly.
There is no evidence that the earth spontaneously creates oil. There is nothing in the article that even suggests a question about where oil comes from.
The funniest thing I read above? “we are sucking oil faster than the mold can create it”.
Yes, #6 Malcom is correct.
I trust the fungi can perform as claimed however it doesn’t explain the geology of oil shell or oil fields.
I love this site. Its full of closet climatologists, political science experts, and now geologists. Is there anything the blowhards here aren’t experts on? Give me a break.
In your face, smarty pants old-earth atheists!
#30 – Smeg Alien
Another creationist who pulls conclusions out of his ass.