Viruses Engineered to Construct Batteries

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at MIT have modified the M13 virus to create very small batteries. With the viruses building wires 6 nanometers in diameter, the research team hopes to 'build batteries that range from the size of a grain of rice up to the size of existing hearing-aid batteries.'"

Comments

No support for iPod.

[Scoria]

No support for larger devices. Not human sized. Lame.

Remember folks

[LiquidCoooled]

Next time you have a cold, don't feel bad about sneezing on a colleagues laptop.
Your increasing the power capacity.

Isn't this illegal?

[mrRay720]

As far as I'm aware, they're not paying the virus anything for it's work. They also have no choice in the matter.

Have we really sunk so low as to sink back to using slavery in order to make a few lousy batteries?

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[Vo0k]

and then imagine viruses creating an underground deep up your nostril, a virus called Neo pulled out of a battery by other viruses and shown what has happened to it, then the rebel viruses infecting people at random, humans sending in antibiotics and other viruses to fight them, one of the protective viruses combining its DNA with Neo, creating a dangerous mutation starting an epidemy, and finally humans allowing the battery viruses to take over because that's the only way to stop the epidemy...

Astonishing manotech!

[Vengeance]

And I do misspell it deliberately... This is what I copied from TFA:

Each virus, and thus each wire, is only 6 manometers -- 6 billionths of a metre -- in diameter, and 880 manometers long, the researchers said.

It made me chuckle, although I may be easily amused at this hour of the morning.

Huge viruses!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Each virus, and thus each wire, is only 6 manometers in diameter, and 880 manometers long, the researchers said." Water or mercury manometers? Either way, that's a big virus.

Do we not learn?

[caluml]

modified the M13 virus

Hmm. Viruses building batteries? What could go wrong?

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah hearing aid batteries already exist.

But RTFA, But these are hearing aids for viruses.

Much smaller see? Tiny little ears.

Re:Argh! I'm Dying

[dpiven]

Of course, since all that electrical activity in your intestines will manifest itself by generating gaseous H2 and O2, what will ACTUALLY happen is --

Must pass gas, fill bowl with explosive mixture of H2, O2, CH4 and H2S, two or three M13 viruses are expelled into this mixture, a spark is created, and the next time you are seen, your head is embedded in the bathroom ceiling and your pants are smoldering.

Now THAT sucks.

Re:Environmental disaster looms

[bar-agent]

I, for one, welcome our...

so don't worry about self powered virus overlords.

Dammit! You ruined it!