Step Into My Laboratory

This article from the (London) Times Online, "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol," sounds like a hoax (this isn't April 1, is it?) but claims that scientists in Silicon Valley are genuinely genetically modifying bacteria to eat wood and food waste and excrete petroleum. The claims are that the process takes place in a tank and won't hurt anything and that the process is carbon neutral or better. Check it out for yourself.