When we run through , our cells recrudesce down clams , while their excess negatron fall through a series of chemical chemical reaction until they ’re passed onto oxygen . This physical process generate the Department of Energy molecule ATP , life-sustaining to nearly all subsist things . " Life ’s very clever,”Kenneth Nealson from the University of Southern Californiasays . " It visualize out how to suck electrons out of everything we eat and keep them under control . "
Not too surprisingly then , there are bacterium out there that eat and excrete electrons – and as it turn out , they ’re everywhere .
Years ago , researcher light upon two type of galvanic bacterium , GeobacterandShewanella , which use free energy in its naked , pure strain : electrons harvested from the airfoil of rocks and mineral . Now , scientist show that many more electrical bacteria can be fish out of rocks and nautical clay by baiting them with a bit of electrical succus , New Scientist reports .
" Electrons must flow in lodge for energy to be gained,”Nealson explain . “ This is why when someone asphyxiate another person they are dead within second . You have stopped the supply of oxygen , so the electron can no longer flow . "
Electric bacterium , however , have done away with sugary middlemen .
Nealson and colleagues have maturate electric bacterium on assault and battery electrodes , keeping them alive with electricity and nothing else . ( In human being , that ’d be like power up by shove our finger in a socket . ) The squad collected seabed sediment and inserted electrodes deep down of it . put on a slightly higher voltage than the sediment ’s instinctive potential outcome in an overabundance of electrons – which bacteria in the deposit eat . With a more or less low voltage , the electrode becomes eager to accept electrons ; in this case , the bacteria take a breath electrons onto the electrode , which generates a stream . " Basically,“Nealson aver , " the idea is to take sediment , stick electrodes inside and then ask ' OK , who like this ? ' "
In unpublished work , the USC scientists have identified up to eight different kinds of bacteria that consume electricity , and they ’re all very different from each other .
A fistful of other researcher are also working on electric bacterium . Daniel Bond ’s team from the University of Minnesotain St. Paul is growing bacterium that harvest electrons from iron electrodes . Lars Peter Nielsen and his colleagues at Aarhus Universityin Denmark have happen that tens of one thousand of galvanic bacterium can bring together together to organize “ daisy chains ” that take electrons over several cm ( Brobdingnagian distance for a bacterium ) . Here ’s a video of electric bacteria forming their “ microbial nanowires . ”
research worker desire to use these bacteria to examine fundamental questions about life , such as the stripped lower limit of energy needed to sustain life-time . Electric bacterium have hard-nosed uses too , such as cleaning up contaminated groundwater while powering themselves using their surroundings .
[ ViaNew Scientist ]
