|
Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 7,953
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
|
bacteria feeding on electrons
#22439394 - 10/27/15 09:25 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I mean, all life is about harnessing energy, but these bacteria cut out the middle man. That's an awesome discovery.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25894-meet-the-electric-life-forms-that-live-on-pure-energy
Quote:
STICK an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these “electric bacteria” are very real and are popping up all over the place.
Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form – naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types, Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.
Now imagine growing bacteria that eat/process eletricity into an engine.
--------------------
|
thebitterbuffalo26
Fartyr



Registered: 04/18/15
Posts: 555
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
|
|
Or maybe better than nuclear energy
--------------------
|
micro
bunbun has a gungun



Registered: 05/09/03
Posts: 7,532
Loc: Brick City
|
|
hah, neat
though the article seems a tad bit like hyperbole:
Quote:
Nealson’s team is one of a handful that is now growing these bacteria directly on electrodes, keeping them alive with electricity and nothing else – neither sugars nor any other kind of nutrient. The highly dangerous equivalent in humans, he says, would be for us to power up by shoving our fingers in a DC electrical socket.
Obviously they are not growing and dividing indefinitely without food.
You can't make matter appear from just electricity :V
They could probably survive for a while though, having one cell and all that.
-------------------- Any research paper or book for free (Avatar is Maxxy, a character by Mizzyam, RIP)
|
DrMushroom
Human Farmer


Registered: 04/28/12
Posts: 722
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 23 days, 1 hour
|
|
the fact they said its a DC socket is an intentional giveaway.
electrons cannot be converted into mass, hell, matter cant even technically touch them, the flow of electrons is essentially an unstoppable force, we simply guide it and use the "pressure" of its force, being electricity.
also you cant "pump" electrons into an electrode if they end up going nowhere, you can pump a charge, but not more electrons. in order to push electrons you need to pull them too, nothing will give up an electron unless it simultaneously receives one at the same time.
This isnt common knowledge though but it is quite clever all the same. I give it a B-
--------------------
     Mushroom Madness for my face and the tree on the moon dinosaur hello yellow im game. Shaman Australis Botanicals and Mycology (ethnobotany and mycology, an australia based discord) https://discord.gg/UYaH6QT
|
trendal
J♠



Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
|
Re: bacteria feeding on electrons [Re: DrMushroom]
#22593761 - 11/30/15 08:34 AM (8 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
A charge is the overabundance or lack of electrons...so you can add electrons to an isolated conductor. A capacitor is an electrical component that makes direct use of this property, by storing electrons for later release. In fact any time two different materials touch there is an exchange of electrons.
--------------------
Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
|
|