I was brought up being told ‘Eating meat is wrong’… After being convinced with various argumenets & investing effort in plant based protein research, I now agree that ‘chicken’ can be a good source of protein… The high chicken production has lead to it being readily available as low cost meat- and hence happens to be the most consumed meat in the world.

BUT, what the hell, running cars with chicken feathers? My father would argue, ‘Couldn’t they invest the effort in inventing a better resource to drive cars?’. “Well, we are going green… “, really?!?

“The Romans used chickens as oracles, both when flying and when feeding. The hen gave a favorable omen, when appearing from the left like the crow and the owl.” I just learnt about chickens on wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken !

By and large -> let’s be honest. We like to consume meat- its easy & filling. Its readily available as staple diet in most of the world. We are still giving pain by brutal killing of these creatures. My fear is that we are setting a stage for the future, where killing is encouraged.

The world today is set up on an ‘effectiveness’ stage – where we realised – anything effective sells. We want to utilize anything that’s readily available. By products are a great selling point. Well, yes – making fuel out of feathers may sell, but at least, please don’t call it green! I agree that its an amazing revolution – where every part of every animal that’s being rared is utilized – that can be called ‘effective’. We are being effective & not wasting anything. I don’t call that Green -> we are just being selfish and effective – its in no way friendly to the environment. The definition of green is not just making effective use of by-products- its also being environment-friendly.

The research has been presented at – “13th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference” I revolt – I cannot see this as being “Green”.

Animals are smart and sensitive. They are beautiful. They are life. With all this research, we may be setting up the stage for a future – where killing is encouraged – leading to more meat consumption & more brutal killing. yes – it may also be the same with plants – I don’t say no. My only vote is that – ‘we leave as minimal carbon footprint in the universe as possible’. When we think Carbon foot-print – we never think food consumption -this may be one of the most important factors. Please think before you leap.

“…no one has come up with a way to inexpensively and effectively produce and store all that hydrogen.” And they probably never will. There is always some ‘if only we could figure out how to’ glitch to solutions like hydrogen power.

“… when they heated up quill fibers to extremely high temperatures, carbon nanotubes with nanoporous walls formed…” Where does the energy come from to heat things to “extremely high temperatures”. Coal? Gas? Oil?
Seems counter productive to me.

“researchers must first figure out how to optimize the technology” Translation: It doesn’t work. We are trying to figure out how in the heck we can make it actually, you know… work.