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New Bacterium Could Herald Bio-Batteries
Clever Pun writes "According to this BBC article, a newly discovered bacterium is able to convert 'uranium and other radionuclides dissolved in water to solid compounds that can be extracted.' It reduces (adds electrons to) positively charged metal ions, making them insoluble in water (making them easier to clean up), which creates small charges of electricity. It has been speculated that this bacterium could potentially be used in a sort of bio-battery. Matrix v0.1b, anyone?"
This was covered on NPR this past Friday. You can probally find some archive of it if you're interested in hearing it.. try here. It sounded interesting but not quite viable yet based on what I heard.
Actually, there are quite a few species of bacteria who use this kind of cycle to get their energy. Not a bad thing to colonize layers where respiration won't help. And the ability to specifically reduce heavy metal ions probably comes, as the article implies, from mutations on cytochrome reductases genes.
There is nothing special about this particular bug, except that it was used to gain some insight on how these kinds of bacteria work their magic.
The whole battery idea comes from how we now understand that the "c-type cytochromes" add electrons to the heavy metal ions to newtralize them, and create a small electrical current in the process.
Yes, in theory I would imagine any bacteria that has similar mechanics could be used.
This little fella jsut happened to get the spotlight because it was the first to be studied in depth.
Ref. http://www.geobacter.org/ for some more info
You might also want to read through the talk.origins archive, since I think you might not fully understand how evolution works. (Hint: "survival of the fittest" is a really poor way to describe it.)
=Smidge=
Quite a lot of information about this bacteria (Geobacter sulfurreducens) can be found at the Geobacter project home page.
Human/Ranger/Zangband
From what I understand, geobacteria are pretty much everywhere in the soil. The key is feeding them enough vinegar to get the population to bloom so that you can have a sufficient quantity. They have an affinity for various metals, including iron. But the population levels are typically so low that they have very little effect on the soil.
There are a few issues to overcome in a medical application of their properties. One is that human tissue is not really a hospitible environment for them. Another is how to keep them from mucking with the iron in a patient's blood.
Probably some setup similar to kidney dialysis or apheresis would get past the first. More genetic analysis may yield a candidate that doesn't particularly go for iron. Stitch the appropriate bit of DNA from that one into one that likes lead/mercury/whatever, and you may be past the second.
The page linking to the NPR audio is here
Forget Neodarwinism: it's a myth, and dead wrong. Biological evolution does not happen that way. In short: autonomous systems cannot be instructed by the environment, so there can be no such thing as Natural Selection. The reason Neodarwinism (which is not the same as evolution!) is still the dominant paradigm are really very very close to the reason Micro$oft dominates the computer market. FUD included: I'm supposed to be a "cryptocreationist" because I demand this so-called "theory" to be put to the test [it never was, go check it].
Evolutionary biology (the non-Micro$oft-like kind, that is) has long left Darwin behind, decades ago.
Sorry this Science Inc. had you fooled.
``L'imagination au povoir.''
If something can be eaten, it will be. Survival of the fittest doesn't only mean competition with peers, it also means adapting to make use of resources.. If this bacteria evolved because of exposure to a redionuclide rich environment, then that's evolution at work for you.
Organisms that reduce other metals have been known for a long time - for example mercury. There are already programs using these sorts of bioorganisms for detoxifying heavy metal-containing soil and water.