Algae is contained in a beaker at the laboratory of Makoto Watanabe, professor of the graduate school of Life and Environmental Sciences at University of Tsukuba, in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. As Japan's rice paddy fields turn fallow and its farmers die off, a new army of workers is getting ready to make the countryside fertile once again. This time the crop is biofuel, and the laborers are microalgae. At least 75 developers globally are studying algae, which has the potential to generate more energy per hectare than any other source of biofuel, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The technology has attracted the U.S. Department of Energy and big oil including Exxon Mobil Corp, which plans to spend as much as $600 million on research over five years. Photographer: Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Makoto Watanabe
Kimimsa Mayama/Bloomberg
