Bacteria Used to Create Nanowires

FnH writes "Derek Lovley and his colleagues of the University of Massachusetts discovered that the Geobacter bacteria is capable of producing nanowires. The bacteria is normally used to clean up toxic waste. Geobacter does not use oxygen, but metal as its source for power. This probably explains the 3nm to 5nm nanowires it excretes while working. What metal the nanowires are made of is not yet known, but the genetic code responsible for their creation is. This opens up the possibility of modifying the bacteria to create nanowires on chips."

Comments

Dupe

[SlashEdsDoYourJobs]

Dupe.

The bacteria "link up" with each other

[ReformedExCon]

According to the article, the bacteria seem to produce these tiny wires which then carry electrical signals across large meshes of bacteria-produced wires. It would be interesting to see what sort of emergent behavior, if any, would arise from very large meshes of these wires and bacteria.

Re:The bacteria "link up" with each other

[k98sven]

No, they don't carry signals. (What signals would there be to carry?)

The reduction of metal (iron) in a geobacter metallireducens bacteria functions as little more than an electron sink for getting rid of electrons at the end of the respiratory chain.

Fe3+ (metal ion from the environment) + 3 e- --> Fe (metal)

There are other bacteria which turn nitrate into nitrogen and sulphur into H2S (smelly bastards!), among others.

We humans (and our relatives) do this using oxygen:
O2 (oxygen from the environment) + 4 e- + 4H+ --> 2 H2O (water)

There's nothing particularily surprizing about the fact that it produces metal. Nor is it terribly surprizing that the metal comes out as a long strand. Respiration is a rather continuous process, after all!

So no signalling. (And what could they possibly signal anyway?) But that doesn't mean there couldn't be benefits for the bacteria to have its metal threads connected. It might help ground any excess negative charge on the resulting metal, aiding the respiration process.

Re:The bacteria "link up" with each other

[ReformedExCon]

Thank you for the expanded information.

The original basis for my post was this quote:

quote
Patrinos said the bacteria may organize to form minipower grids in the soil by linking up via the nanowires. /quote

Re:The bacteria "link up" with each other

[Zen Punk]

Actually, you just made that up. Way to read what isn't there. This qoute might have been the foundation for your extrapolation:

The ability of the bacteria to link their nanowires has been observed in Lovley's lab. The hairlike wires emanating from the bacteria had been seen previously, but their conducting function was discovered via atomic-force microscope techniques.

Or perhaps this:

Patrinos said the bacteria may organize to form minipower grids in the soil by linking up via the nanowires.

I have no idea what is meant by a "minipower grid" nor what the bacteria in question may be "linking up" to.

It isn't clear whether he means that a single bacterium can link its own wires together or that several bacteria can link their own respective wires together. Nowhere in the text, however, does it imply that the bacteria send signals of any kind through these wires.

Re:The bacteria "link up" with each other

[k98sven]

we would someday have bacteria that can excrete carbon nanotube

Well, I think finding any decent catalyst for nanotubes would be a huge breakthrough. The way they're made today is basically by blasting carbon (creating a whole bunch of different crap) and sorting out the bits you want. Not very efficient or controlled.

or perhaps even Hydrogen gas

There are already bacteria who produce hydrogen gas. Current research is already trying to do stuff with this. For instance, the EU is funding a project to try and couple this to Photosystem II and have an enzyme which could produce hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight cheaply and efficiently.

Crystal Ball Hackery

[CleverNickedName]

This opens up the possibility of modifying the bacteria to create nanowires on chips.

In the same was as it opens up the possibility of modifying the bacteria to code Linux kernel patches.
This certainly is cool biotech, but slapping this wild prediction on to the end of the article doesn't make it more so.

Re:Crystal Ball Hackery

[Otter]

I dunno -- certainly by the standards of wild speculation customarily appended to science stories here it's not that far-fetched. You modify the bacteria to follow some stimulus that can be applied with higher resolution than can currently be achieved with traces (light, maybe?) and let them lay down wiring.

It's no more improbable than most of the "Possible Cure For Cancer!" stuff we see here, probably on the order of modifying "Yuo have teh source code so fix it yuorself!!!" Lunix fanboys to code kernel patches.

For once

[malkavian]

people would be quite correct in saying that the wiring inside their device was crap!

Oh, crap

[KiloByte]

This probably explains the 3nm to 5nm nanowires it excretes while working.
So... the next generation of electronics is going to be made of shit?

Re:Oh, crap

[imag0]

So... the next generation of electronics is going to be made of shit?

Stands to reason it will be. Heaven knows the previous couple of generations have been ;)

Re:Possible cyberjack material?

[SlashEdsDoYourJobs]

Hey, if the editors can dupe, why not you?

Re:Oxigen

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably one of those British spellings. Like 'spelt', 'whilst', 'kerb', and a bunch of other meaningless words.

I always said Intel chips

[madman101]

were crap...

Geobacter infected metals

[La Gris]

Anyone else think of roten metals ?

Geobacter does not use oxigen, but metal as it's source for power

Now, our cars will not only rust in winter because of salted snow, but they may rot eaten by Geobacter. ;)

More seriously:
Could this bacteria be genetically engineered to eat common metals like steel, or more uncommon ones targeted at destroying military or sabotage foundrys?

Is another bio weapon on the way?

Re:Geobacter infected metals

[SimilarityEngine]

Actually, geobacter is more interesting for its ability to decontaminate soil.

Re:Geobacter infected metals

[1u3hr]

They're talking about them being rust monsters. And that could seriously weaken any structure. A high level fly over that sprays bacteria on a steel structure. Two months later, shoot holes in it using a bb gun

from followng a few links: geobacter is anaerobic; it can tolerate a low level of oxygen, but basically lives in underground water with very low oxygen concentration. So spraying it not the air will kill it. Also, if I understand the chemistry (quite likely I haven't), it consumes rust, not iron per se.

Bacteria making wires?!

[Dubpal]

Don't these scientists read the news!? Wires are sooo twentieth century.
Wake me up when they finally find bacteria that use Bluetooth.

Nice

[airjrdn]

Great, now they're building the bugs into the chips on purpose? What next?

This is already Patented...

[vettemph]

>
>nanowires it excretes while working.

and Microsoft will vigorously defend its patented ability to turn your PC into excrement.

Born from "Star Trek"...

[cnelzie]

...the post you were responding to is.

    "It would be just like that one Star Trek Episode where Wesley was doing this experiment with Nanobots that networked together and formed a rudimentary, then more evolved Artificial Intelligence. They like took over Lt. Cmdr. Data and then took over the ship and all they wanted was a chance to have a place of their own, that they could turn into grey ooze." ...or...

    "It could be just like that one Star Trek Episode where there was this terraforming project going on at this lifeless rock and the Enterprise was sent to investigate some terrible disasters that were happening there. It turns out that there were this mircoscopic silicone based lifeforms living in the sands on this planet and they were like, getting killed by the terraforming process. Anyway, the leader of the terraforming colony knew what was going on, he just didn't want to admit that he was killing little silicone sand creatures. The silicone sand creatures networked together and started being all bad-ass as they increased in capability and inteligent as they joined together, kinda like the Constructicons from The Transformers television series, that was cool, you know? So, anyway, these bacteria might be doing the same thing!"

    Anyway, I have to blame Star Trek. While the series has been known to inspire tons of people to do great things, it's pseudo-science has done some harm as people assume that what happens in a Science Fantasy show can happen in real life.

    No hatin' to the original poster, btw. I am just saying.

Carbon Nanotubes

[Dachannien]

Now all we need is a bacterium that can produce useful things made of carbon, such as nanotubes, consuming methane and releasing hydrogen in the process. Then we can all switch to fuel-cell based cars without all this perpetual kvetching over how to get the hydrogen.

I was fired from this project...

[vudufixit]

For bringing penicillin to work! I had strep! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD???

Logistically speaking...

[kent, knower of all]

How do you get all of the bacteria to crap in a straight line?

I mean, all it takes is one of the little buggers to go off in a random direction and it'll short the whole damned circuit.

Unless, of course, we can engineer another strain of bacteria that eat the metal wire and excrete insulated wire. :)

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