Jul 8, 2008
Story Timeline: 98 days
Pond scum can undo pollution, fight global warming and alleviate world hunger Professors Randall Kerstetter, Joachim Messing and Todd Michael collecting duckweed samples from the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey. NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Three plant biologists at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology are obsessed with duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant with an unassuming name. Now they have convinced the federal government to focus its attention on duckweed's tremendous potential for cleaning up pollution, combating global warming and feeding the world. This enterprise builds upon Rutgers' burgeoning energy and environmental research and the important contributions Waksman Institute scientists have already made to plant genomics, including the sequencing of rice, sorghum and corn. At the behest of the Rutgers scientists...
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