Narrator: This is Science Today. A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and their Colorado colleagues have discovered a way to trigger green algae to produce large quantities of hydrogen gas. Tasios Melis, a UC Berkeley professor of plant and microbial biology, says because hydrogen gas is one of the most promising alternative fuel sources, this discovery may greatly impact the future.

Melis: There is a concerted effort by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop what is called now hydrogen technologies. That entails not only the production of hydrogen, in which we are involved with, but also to develop technologies such as storage of hydrogen, transportation of hydrogen, utilization of hydrogen to power cars.

Narrator: The limiting step right now is the production of hydrogen because it's done in a non-renewable manner.

Melis: So I think that's where our contribution is significant, because we have a process based on the biology of green algae and this process permits the production and accumulation of significant amounts of hydrogen.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.