Microbes That Produce Miniature Electrical Wires

anukit writes "Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a tiny biological structure that is highly electrically conductive. This breakthrough helps describe how microorganisms can clean up groundwater and produce electricity from renewable resources. It may also have applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which develops advanced materials and devices in extremely small dimensions."

Comments

Re:I wish the press release actually said somethin

[DirtyLiar]

If your read all the waaaaay down to the bottom, you'd have found the following link:

GeoBacter

Interesting stuff.

Old News

[core plexus]

Alaska Bugs Sweat Gold Nuggets

"Bacterial biomineralization, as it's known among the experts, has been observed in other places and for other minerals. In fact, bacterial abilities to precipitate metals from solution have been used in some very high-tech contemporary methods of treating polluted water. It's even been appreciated that some bacteria can precipitate gold. Watterson himself had found that the spore coats of another bacterial breed serve as nuclei for luring gold out of solution in broths of gold chloride."

-cp-

The Field of Biomimicry

[Quirk]

While not explicitly linked to biomimicry, the implications relate to this relatively new field. There's now a web site dedicated to dissiminating the developing ideas. My introduction came from reading Biomimicry by Janine M. Benyus. I found a copy in the central library and I think most city libraries would have a copy. It's not a rigorous read and an easy one. As the fields of molecular biology and nanotechnology grow, implementations of biomimicry will provide avenues to harness nature according to it's own rules, or, so I hope. :)