John Roach writes for National Geographic about research into the bacteria that lives in the guts of termites; the bacteria enable termites to digest wood by converting it to hydrogen.

So here’s what’s cool: researchers speculate that if we can understand how the bacteria do this, we may be able to use that information to create a new energy technology. One of the researchers, Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley

imagines a day when “little digesters” — a termite germ-derived technology — sit in people’s garages and process piles of woody waste to produce enough hydrogen to power cars and homes.

Off the grid and into the termite mound :-)