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Scientists have created a strain of bacteria that can make small, energy-packed carbon rings that are useful starting materials for creating other chemicals and materials. These rings, which are otherwise particularly difficult to prepare, now can be "brewed" in much the same way as beer. The bacteria were created using directed evolution, a technique developed in the 1990s.
The technique allows scientists to quickly and easily breed bacteria with the traits that they desire. It has previously been used to evolve bacteria that create carbon-silicon and carbon-boron bonds, neither of which is found among organisms in the natural world. Using this same technique, the researchers set out to build the tiny carbon rings rarely seen in nature.Image credit: Caltech
