It is a very small amount, and it might very well be a defense mechanism. Many plants produce chemical compounds to ward off predation (kind of handy since you can’t run away). Hot peppers are one notable plant variety which does this. The only animals which will routinely eat them are birds and humans (and the humans have selectively bred the peppers to increase the naturally occuring levels of capsaicin, since they like the heat and antibiotic properties of it).
Protection from being eaten, or to repel water, to inhibit the growth of parasitic moulds, or to store energy, etc.
Dunno - the argument sounds very much like the anti-evolution stuff a former boss used to come out with: if sharks are so well adapted, why isn’t everything a shark? If long necks are so useful to giraffes, why don’t all animals have them?
Found it! Voila, the “kerosene tree!” Tap that sucker and it pours out sweet, sweet kerosene. Why? Who the hell knows. But even as straightforward as that is, it isn’t considered a realistic biofuel source. It’s a TREE, that makes KEROSENE, and even it is not a realistic solution. This is why I mistrust the lure of the diesel fungus.
Oh horse britches, you know you’d want one too.
I really don’t think one could have. But possibly you are correct.
You don’t know me. You don’t own my spare time. Who are you to judge?!
I thought I already implied that I’ll concede I’m wrong even if it is the fungus we use for rocket fuel.
I am not trying to kill your joy here, and I’m sorry if that’s how it comes across. I personally will be delighted if the world can be powered by a fungus. Who really knows what the future holds in spore for us?
I don’t see the comparison. I do not think that everything should produce diesel. In fact I can think of a lot of ways that such a situation could be extremely uncomfortable.
Sorry, perhaps it’s not an apt comparison - it’s just the way you were dismissing a unique attribute as a purely accidental and useless one.
Oh I don’t think it’s accidental or useless, quite the reverse-- if the fungus is going to all that trouble, it must be doing it for a good reason. Same with the kerosene tree-- whyfo all the work to create such an energy-intensive product? As you suggested, possibly protection from insects; kerosene kills ants, if I recall aright. I’m certain that such mechanisms would disappear through natural selection if they didn’t benefit the organism.
And if you read the source, you’ll see why
Thats a lot of real estate for fuel production, and given its preferrence for growing only in the tropics, planting enough of them to make a significant dent in even a small nations energy needs would require the deforesting of signifcant portions of the rainforest, which is generally agreed to be a Bad Thing[sup]TM[/sup]. There’s also nothing in the wiki article, nor in any searches that I’ve done, which indicate how long it takes for the tree to reach maturity, or at what age it begins producing the compounds. It may be that its a slow growing tree (slower than the palm trees which are now being planted in huge numbers for oil harvesting), or that it takes a number of years before the tree produces significant quantities of the compounds.
The fuck I would. I’ve not had a Christmas tree in my house since I moved out on my own some 20 years ago. Why should I change that simply because it glows in the dark? If I wanted something like that, I could buy an artificial tree and paint it with glow in the dark paint.
Given that human history is filled with people failing to recognize important things (Hero’s steam engines remained parlor tricks until the 1700s, for example.), I’m going to say that one could.
So what’s stopping you? All you’d need is some tubing, duct tape, and a plastic bag. Get cracking! You’re depriving the world of an important resource!
Yes, but what if its only a few snippets of fungal DNA spliced into algae? One could hardly call that fungus produced fuel, but the fungus would certainly be integral to the production.
The pun police shall be along in a few moments to arrest you. I advise to you not resist.
I apologize.