Today’s interesting fact has to do with the Giant Panda and Bio fuels.

I remember when I was at High School I was watching the TV with my parents; I think it was the news.

The program was asking what good are Pandas and the politician being interviewed stated that if Pandas died out we wouldn't have lost anything.

I've occasionally remembered this interview in the past, especially whenever someone, whether on the TV, Radio or in person, asked the same question.

The WWF has campaigned long and hard to keep Pandas as a species alive and we might be very glad they did.

It is just in science news yesterday and today that they have found a species of bacteria that allows almost total conversion of woody plant material into sugars that can be used to produce bio fuels.

These bacteria have been successfully bred in the lab, don't require high temperatures or pressure and it looks like they may easily adapted to an industrial process.

What most of the articles I've read over the past two days, don't mention where they found the bacteria.

It was in the faecal material of Pandas.

The bacteria live in the guts of Pandas and allow this extremely specialised mammal to live on a diet of mostly woody stems by converting them into sugars.

From these sugars they can create the plastics, oils, and fuels, indeed all the materials we create from fossil fuels.

So, what good is a Panda?

If it turns out to be the salvation of our way of life, including cars, heat and light, perhaps the Panda's existence has no payable price.

It makes me wonder if any of the extinct animals we have lost, could have given us some other priceless gift, if we had left their environments that kept them alive alone.