Nature
Bacteria Make Electrical Grid Using Soil
Keerthi Chandrashekar
First Posted: Jun 09, 2012 11:10 AM EDT
Turns out bacteria make electrical grids through the soil to metabolize food, much like other organisms who share electrons to break down their sustenance.
Even the human body does it - by sharing electrons, our bodies can break down vital chemicals like natural sugar.
The bacteria are surrounded by soil, which is rich in minerals. By using these conductive materials, bactera can actually share electrons through distances as great as centimeters, and form a digestive and electircal, interconnected grid."
Since microbes have evolved in environments where there exist plenty of conductive mineral particles, it is not surprising that microbes have abilities to utilize mineral particles for various purposes, including electron transfer," said study co-author Kazuya Watanabe, a microbiologist at the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences.
The electrical currents are extremely tiny, and he stresses that, "No one gets shocked with electricity in soil."
Another microbiologist, Lars Peter Nielsen, says that the conductivity from these minerals is still too small to help the bactera exchange electrons centimeters apart. He suggests that the bacteria may be rearranging the minerals in order to make them into better transimtters and receivers.
The level of autonomous, collective organization is astounding, due to the fact how tiny and simple bacteria are. Still, they are utilizing the same processes our trillion-cell body does.
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First Posted: Jun 09, 2012 11:10 AM EDT
Turns out bacteria make electrical grids through the soil to metabolize food, much like other organisms who share electrons to break down their sustenance.
Even the human body does it - by sharing electrons, our bodies can break down vital chemicals like natural sugar.
The bacteria are surrounded by soil, which is rich in minerals. By using these conductive materials, bactera can actually share electrons through distances as great as centimeters, and form a digestive and electircal, interconnected grid."
Since microbes have evolved in environments where there exist plenty of conductive mineral particles, it is not surprising that microbes have abilities to utilize mineral particles for various purposes, including electron transfer," said study co-author Kazuya Watanabe, a microbiologist at the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences.
The electrical currents are extremely tiny, and he stresses that, "No one gets shocked with electricity in soil."
Another microbiologist, Lars Peter Nielsen, says that the conductivity from these minerals is still too small to help the bactera exchange electrons centimeters apart. He suggests that the bacteria may be rearranging the minerals in order to make them into better transimtters and receivers.
The level of autonomous, collective organization is astounding, due to the fact how tiny and simple bacteria are. Still, they are utilizing the same processes our trillion-cell body does.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone