If that’s not weird enough, it’s also three times more efficient than ethanol, the current biofuel poster boy.

How’d they do it? By genetically modifying the strains of E. Coli and increasing the number of carbon atoms per molecule. That’s one of ethanol’s biggest drawbacks: because of a relatively short molecular chain, it isn’t as efficient as gasoline, and absorbs too much water. The UCLA strains currently have five carbon atoms per chain, but they predict eight in the near-future.

According to Science Daily, “This new strategy opens an unexplored frontier for biofuels production.”

But that was last year.

A recent study by the Hadley Center and Environment Canada claims that natural effects, such as volcanic eruptions and sunlight, could not have caused the warming and melting trends at the south pole. The culprit? Greenhouse gases.

Over the last few decades, the average Antarctic temperature has risen by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The Larson B and Wilkins ice shelves have collapsed. Were this trend to continue, and all of the ice shelves around the Antarctic melted, worldwide sea levels would rise approximately 230 feet, according to the EEN.

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