Twenty percent of watermelons never make it to the picnic table. Rather, one in every five is left to ripen and rot in the field, rejected for even the slightest of cosmetic imperfections. But U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers may have found a way to elevate these outcasts to an even higher calling than the summer BBQ: biofuel production. Intrigued?. Have a look at yesterday's post on the SciAm blog here. The full research article by Fish, Bruton & Russo is due to be published today in Biotechnology for Biofuels 2009, 2:1. Read the abstract here.
