The iPod inventor is now turning cow burps into diamonds

Cow on the left, diamond on the right — Cows produce a lot of methane – but it has a surprising use (Pictures: Getty)

The inventor of the iPod has now turned his attention to saving the planet – including converting methane from cow ‘burps and farts’ into diamonds.

Tony Fadell, who is also co-inventor of the iPhone, said the world was ‘waking up to methane’ as a significant contributor to global warming, even though carbon dioxide (CO2) earns most of the headlines.

He was speaking at the Starmus Festival in Bratislava, a mix of science and arts co-founded by Queen guitarist Brian May.

‘Over the years I’ve been able to build… billions and billions of products around the planet that people have used over the years and continue to use today,’ said Mr Fadell, as quoted by The Times. ‘Now what I’m doing is spending my time working with innovators around the world and start-ups helping the planet.’

Alongside inventing the ubiquitous Apple devices, Mr Fadell also created smart thermostat and smoke alarm company Nest, which Google bought from him for £2.5 billion in 2014.

He has since invested some of that fortune into helping to combat climate change, including funding, designing and building MethaneSAT, a satellite launched earlier this year to detect methane leaks around the world.

iPod inventor Tony Fadell has moved into planet-saving tech (Picture: Getty)

However, fossil fuel fields are not the only sources of methane. Cows – more specifically their burps and, to a lesser extent, their flatulence – are also a significant producer of the gas, which traps much more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

‘I have a company called Diamond Foundry that takes biomethane either from the ground or from manure or animals and we turn it into diamonds with green energy, with wind and solar,’ said Mr Fadell.