I am continually fascinated with those scientists in New Zealand. It seems they'll let nothing hold them back in their relentless pursuit to improve the world. This time they've really amazed me though with their announcement that they have finally bred a cow which produces "skim" milk. Officials at the biotech firm ViaLactia have visions of low-fat milk-producing dairy herds dancing in their heads.

When speaking about their newly isolated low-fat cow, ViaLactia's chief scientist Russell Snell said, "she produces a normal level of protein in her milk but substantially less fat, and the fat she does produce has much more unsaturated fat," Snell said. "She also produces milk with very high levels of omega3 oils." Additionally, the firm claims that they have determined that the low fat traits can be passed on to the cow's offspring.

It's taken nearly six years for the company to determine that this trait is actually carried in the cow's genetic construction and not a simple anomaly. Scientists needed to have the significant cow bred, have her produce female offspring, raise that female offspring to breeding age and the "freshen" her (bring her to milk production) through her own breeding. After all that was done, scientists were then able to test the newly freshened cow's milk to determine that it indeed was as significant as her mother's.

Soon we may very well be seeing cows wearing running shoes and head bands as the new age of dairy begins to dawn. Milk which is naturally low in fat yet contains all the nutritional value of the previous generations is surely going to gather some major attention. In the mean time, I recommend that you keep a watchful eye turned towards New Zealand. It seems to me that the scientific community over there has some real bright stars working for them.

There's no word yet on how this small development might touch Exxon (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) or Conoco (NYSE: COP), but a little upstart in New Zealand called Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation has successfully test driven a vehicle fueled with a biodiesel blend called B5. The new fuel technology exploits biodiesel, which is readily created from harvested algae grown in nutrient rich sewage settling ponds. The best part is that the algae used is created in huge volumes by a process that is already in wide spread use.

In an article reported on the Green Progress website, Aquaflow states that they are years ahead of original estimates regarding when this technology could become available. They say that the next step is to attain the capacity to produce one million litres of this algae based biodiesel per year.

So far the company has attracted some moderate attention from private investors. They had announced that their prospectus would be available by Christmas time but I've not seen one yet. My request for one has been sent. When I receive it I'll be sure to let you know.