“In chemistry, everything that requires energy to make will release energy when it’s broken,” said lead author Pablo Cruz-Morales from the Technical University of Denmark.
When petroleum jet fuel is ignited, it releases a tremendous amount of energy in order to give planes enough lift to escape gravity.
The researchers recreated a molecule called Jawsamycin - named after the movie Jaws because of its bite-like indentations - by using the common bacteria streptomyces.
“The recipe already exists in nature,” Cruz-Morales said. The jagged molecule is produced by native metabolism of the bacteria as they munch away on glucose.
Image credit: Pablo Morales Cruz
“As they eat sugar or amino acids, they break them down and convert them into building blocks for carbon-to-carbon bonds,” he said. “You...