'Wired' microbes to power your phone
Source: Agencies |
May 25, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MICROBES may be harnessed more easily to generate energy after a finding about how they naturally let off tiny electrical charges, according to scientists.
The bacteria, found to have microscopic "wires" sticking through their cell walls, might also be used to clean up oil spills or uranium pollution, according to a report in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery about the exact structure of the bacteria and their atom-sized wires would permit researchers to design electrodes with better contacts to pick up the charges, let off by the microbes to avoid a build-up of electricity.
"We should be able to use this finding to harvest more electricity from the bacteria," lead author Tom Clarke of the University of East Anglia in England said. "Until now it's been a bit like trying to build a radio when you don't know what type or size of battery you are going to put into it," he said.
"Now we have a blueprint of what the battery looks like," he said of the study, also involving scientists at the US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "All living things generate electricity, it's not the stuff of science fiction," he added. Humans use electricity to keep their hearts pumping and brains thinking.
Still, it could take perhaps a decade to develop use of the bacteria, a type called Shewanella oneidensis that live in oxygen-free environments, as an attractive power source for everything from lights to mobile phone chargers.
The bacteria, found to have microscopic "wires" sticking through their cell walls, might also be used to clean up oil spills or uranium pollution, according to a report in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery about the exact structure of the bacteria and their atom-sized wires would permit researchers to design electrodes with better contacts to pick up the charges, let off by the microbes to avoid a build-up of electricity.
"We should be able to use this finding to harvest more electricity from the bacteria," lead author Tom Clarke of the University of East Anglia in England said. "Until now it's been a bit like trying to build a radio when you don't know what type or size of battery you are going to put into it," he said.
"Now we have a blueprint of what the battery looks like," he said of the study, also involving scientists at the US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "All living things generate electricity, it's not the stuff of science fiction," he added. Humans use electricity to keep their hearts pumping and brains thinking.
Still, it could take perhaps a decade to develop use of the bacteria, a type called Shewanella oneidensis that live in oxygen-free environments, as an attractive power source for everything from lights to mobile phone chargers.
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