Manipulating the shape of the threads using this method, called thread-rolling, was thought to be impossible because it would be too hard to control the structure of the screw if metal oozed into odd shapes.
The method might be the key to the widescale production of fuel from algae, which is thought to be the better option over making it from land-based crops such as soya and corn, since the yields are much greater and there is no competition with food-crop production, and provide a real alternative to a globalized world that is utterly dependent on supplies of imported crude oil.
Scientific method did not always match modern thought, reductionist thinking is fairly new in the scheme of humanity and is beginning to go out of fashion due to scientific advancement in physics.