PHOTO: Randy Montoya

At first blush, you might lump claims about a machine that turns sunshine, air, and water into fuel along with e-mails insisting that someone in Nigeria will pay you handsomely to help free up a large sum of money. But engineers at the Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, say they have created a device that can break water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight. In another reaction carbon dioxide can be converted to carbon monoxide, which then combines with hydrogen to make hydrocarbons such as methanol, ethanol, and even gasoline or diesel fuel. More at http://spectrum.ieee.org/jan08/5866.