Global warming and its roots in the burning of fossil fuels have captured the world’s attention recently. Many of us are now acquainted with some of the broader strokes and shapes of this environmental crisis unfolding. We can easily point our finger to the smudge of oil and say that one way to help is to make our cars run on biofuels.

But of course, there are significant subtleties. Just as science has revealed over time how thorough our misconceptions about how things work at a deeper level, scientists and some economists have started to recognize that beyond the obvious need to grow above ground biomass for the production of fuel, we need to understand better how to make that biomass in a sustainable manner.

Nitrogen is vital to the production of any crop. And the Haber-Bosch Process is virtually the only synthetic means of extracting a useable form from this element. However, this process produces nitrogen by using petroleum and releases greenhouse gasses itself! These shortcomings ensure that, to solve global warming, we need to move beyond Haber-Bosch as we work to convert more land into crops for fuel. 

How do plants survive in nature without nitrogen fertilizer? And what does this have to do with plant communication? Plants live through communication in a world of symbiosis and community. Discovery about this special relationship will help us find alternatives for supplying fixed nitrogen to plants that do not normally associate with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Nitrogen fixation is but one remarkable example of the myriad productive (and sometimes destructive-- e.g. pathogenesis) relationships between bacteria and plants. In both cases, we seek to understand for the benefit of all. 

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