Craig Venter, the notorious figure who led the private sector's efforts in the human genome project, and the first person to have his genetic code entirely sequenced, has been awarded $600M from Exxon to grow fuel from algae. Venter talked about the idea in a 2008 TED talk.
Venter's best guess on when algae-based fuel could be powering cars? Five to 10 years, he said.
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