Feature Article

The most controversial aspect of biofuels is the perceived competition for farmland. Will advances in biofuels and agriculture send this trade-off speeding towards the history books?

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S06a.html

A biomass-based fuel needs to be cheap and energy dense. Gasoline sets a high standard.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S09a.html

The inedible parts of plants are feeding the next generation of biofuels. But extracting the energy-containing molecules is a challenging task.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S012a.html

The green slime that covers ponds is an efficient factory for turning sunlight into fuel, but growing it on an industrial scale will take ingenuity.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S015a.html

Shifting from corn to perennial crops in making biofuels is essential to save clean water, argues Jeremy Martin.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S017a.html

Biofuels could help poor nations modernize, but scaling up aid supported projects to commercial operations is far from easy.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S018a.html

Bioenergy could help bring food security to the world's poorest continent, say Lee R. Lynd and Jeremy Woods.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S020a.html

Biofuels have been hailed as key to reducing our fossil-fuel dependence, yet their environmental and social impacts remain uncertain. A complex task lies ahead for policy makers.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S022a.html

Thirty five years of experience has taught one of the world's leading biofuels producers several essential lessons, which other countries should heed, says Marcia Moraes.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S025a.html

Many of us were raised or currently live in an urban environment. A neuroimaging study now reveals how this affects brain function when an individual is faced with a stressful situation.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352/full/474452a.html