Seafarers' scourge provides hope for biofuel future

For centuries, seafarers were plagued by wood-eating gribble that destroyed their ships, and these creatures continue to wreak damage on wooden piers and docks in coastal communities. But new research by scientists at the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre at the universities of York and Portsmouth is uncovering how the tiny marine isopod digests could hold the key to converting wood and straw into liquid biofuels.