The future is Nott as far away as you think

The University of Nottingham has received a whopping £14.3m to fund a new Synthetic Biology Research Centre.

The centre aims to revolutionize how we get important fuels in a “cleaner and greener” way than ever before.

Not unlike something from Star Wars, the new centre will use microbes that can grow gases such as CO and CO₂  and will hopefully reduce our reliance on petrochemicals.

Nottingham University, year 2075?

The funding is so exclusive that the University of Nottingham is one of only three centres to receive it, alongside Bristol and Cambridge/Norwich (sorry Trent).

In case you’re wondering who to address your thank you cards to, the funding comes courtesy of Biological Sciences Research Council and the Physical Sciences Research Council. Get writing.

You gassed it, power stations may well be a thing of the past.

The centres will have state of the art facilities and equipment which will help to advance research in synthetic biology and new technologies and hopefully make science city slightly more exciting.

David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science, said: “Synthetic biology has the potential to drive economic growth but still remains relatively untapped and these new centres will ensure that the UK is at the forefront when it comes to commercialising these new technologies.”