Solazyme, another firm based in South San Francisco, wants to use single-celled algae to make its fuel.

ECONOMIST: Biofuels are back. This time they might even work

He proposes the industrial-scale culturing (biomanufacturing, as he describes it, rather than farming) of single-celled algae that have been genetically engineered to turn out fuel-ready hydrocarbons.

ECONOMIST: Biofuels from algae: Craig's twist | The

For generations, microbiologists had known that single-celled bacteria, fungi and algae survive thanks to proteins that respond to visible light.

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