If the biofuel known as bioethanol is to make a major contribution to our fuel supplies, then we may well require the assistance of some tiny insect helpers, says Michael Scharf, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

With the current drive towards production of alternative fuels from plant material, enzymes which can break down this material into useable compounds are required in industrial quantities and at a low cost. One group of scientists from Texas A&M University have come up with a solution: using plants to make the enzymes.

“People sometimes ask “What is the big deal about sunflower?” says David Lentz, professor of biological sciences and executive director of the Center for Field Studies in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

While sampling blended biodiesel fuels purchased from small-scale retailers, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that many of the blends do not contain the advertised amount of biofuel.

More Canadians will soon be putting cleaner biofuels in their vehicles such as ethanol and biodiesel.

University of Minnesota researchers contributed to a national effort to sequence the genome of an ancient, one-celled organism that will help advance research in a broad range of areas, from biofuels to restoring the environment to understanding a variety of human diseases.

‘Second generation’ biorefineries – those making biofuel from lignocellulosic feedstocks like straw, grasses and wood – have long been touted as the successor to today’s grain ethanol plants, but until now the technology has been considered too expensive to compete.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visit this week in Mexico, Central America and Caribbean to discuss the development of biofuels.

In a finding that could help put wheat alongside corn on the menu of biofuel sources, researchers in the United Kingdom and Greece report development of a new method for producing ethanol from wheat.

Got legs" Chemists in Japan and Italy are reporting development of self-propelled oil droplets that could provide a basis for giving artificial cells the ability to move. Their collaborative study from the University of Tokyo and Protolife in Venice is scheduled for the August 8 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), a weekly publication.

Ailing leader Fidel Castro published an article in state media Thursday criticizing U.S. environmental policies, emerging from months of silence on political matters during his long recuperation from intestinal surgery in an apparent move to reassert his voice on international issues.

Big Finnish forestry and energy companies are releasing plans about biofuel production. Neste Oil and Stora Enso are planning to develop Biofuel production in cooperation. The second largest Finnish Forestry giant, United Paper Mills, is going to make own technical and business solutions. UPM is looking for partners to take care of the distribution of biofuel diesel.