Now, Diesel from Insect Poop

What it is not: It is not the millions of insects that came with the monsoons, which have been crunched in an oil press.

What it is: Well, it is using industrial microbiology to genetically alter insects, which feed on decaying vegetation and excrete crude oil, or, even better, diesel.

What? You read right, that big fat SUV on your driveway could be propelled by insect shit.

You’re bullshitting, right? No, the shit we talk about is worth its weight in black gold.

So how does this work? Well, it doesn’t work as yet. But American start-up LS9, a company funded by IIT-Delhi grad Vinod Khosla (who happened to found Sun Microsystems) is actually pretty close to creating a bug that craps fuel. Well, it has already made a bug that excretes fuel. Now, it just has to make a bug that excretes fuel that can run an internal combustion engine.

—Kushan Mitra