Bacteria help enlisted to generate electricity

Who would have thought that something like bacteria can also come in to be useful where keeping the earth green is concerned? We are talking about scientists working on harnessing microbes such as bacteria to generate electricity after discovering the method that they used to release tiny electrical charges. The bacteria in question was touted to feature microscopic “wires” that stick through their cell walls, and those could eventually be used to clean up oil spills or uranium pollution, at least according to the brains over in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Such a modern discovery concerning the bacteria’s exact structure and their atom-sized wires will pave the way for researchers to design electrodes with better contacts in order to pick up the charges which are actually let off by the microbes so that they can avoid a build-up of electricity.

Lead author Tom Clarke of the University of East Anglia in England says, “We should be able to use this finding to harvest more electricity from the bacteria. 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.”

Let’s just hope that such genetic engineering and manipulation will bring us to greater heights down the road – in the greenest way possible, of course.

Edwin Kee
Categories: General, Medical
Tags: electricity