As more and more oil reserves are being depleted, it is becoming evident that we will not be able to rely on traditional sources of energy forever. Luckily for us, researchers at the University of Exeter have been working on a solution that comes from one of the most unlikely of sources.

And just what is that source, exactly? It's the bacteria Escherichia coli, or more simply referred to as E.Coli. The researchers took genes from the camphor tree, soil bacteria and blue-green algae and spliced them into E. Coli DNA. 

The result was incredible. By feeding a form of sugar called glucose to this new version of the bacteria, the E. Coli was able to convert the sugar into fatty acids and eventually hydrocarbons. Those hydrocarbons were identical to the ones found in commercial oil.

Professor John Love headed the research, and was quick to point out why this finding was so revolutionary for the world's energy predicament.

"Rather than making a replacement fuel like some biofuels, we have made a substitute fossil fuel," Love noted. "The idea is that car manufacturers, consumers and fuel retailers wouldn't even notice the difference - it would just become another part of the fuel production chain."

Love wants you to know that this isn't some pseudo-replacement like corn ethanol, the merits of which have been debated for many years now. This is literally a renewable source of oil.

"We are biologically producing the fuel that the oil industry makes and sells," he says. "What we've done is produced fuels that are exactly the chain length required for the modern engine and exactly the composition that is required. They are bio-fossil-fuels if you like."

Before you get too excited at this new prospect, we're not out of the woods yet. The researchers still have to optimize the efficiency of their methods. It is not currently an economically viable solution, though it very well could be by the end of this decade.

"Our challenge is to increase the yield before we can go into any form of industrial production," he said. "We've got a timeframe of about three to five years to do that and see if it is worth going ahead with it."