The life sciences are ubiquitous. Their application in medicine (known in some quarters as red biotechnology), agriculture (green biotech) and industrial processes (white biotech) is indispensible and lauded. In this issue we look at a no less important but a much less celebrated assignment for life scientists, namely the challenge of meeting our energy needs. Perhaps it should be called black biotechnology. Black because our energy use is dominated by oil.
Oil will continue to be the world's major source of energy for years, in fact for decades, to come, despite the best efforts of biofuel technologists, and of solar, wind, wave and nuclear scientists. Global dependence on oil has never been greater: The incredible living standards in the West are built on its use, as is the dramatic economic growth in developing countries. Even in the midst of this severe and lengthy global economic slowdown, demand for oil will ...
