Bacteria Can Build Nanowires

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have discovered that under certain conditions, some very common bacteria can form nanowires. These bacteria were able to produce nanowires as small as 10 nanometers in diameter, but which can reach hundreds of microns in length. What is interesting here is that these nanowires are electrically conductive ones. This means that bacteria could be used to build microbial fuel cells or bacteria-powered batteries. As one researcher said, 'Earth appears to be hard-wired.'"

Comments

Bob the bacteria

[LiquidCoooled]

Bob the bacteria.
Can we build it?
Yes we can!

Sorry, not enough caffeine

Genetic algorithms' hardware analogue?

[Anonymous Coward]

I imagine with machines built by bacteria it would be possible to create a situation where the ideal harware design is evolved - similar to how genetic programming techniques today evolve software solutions. Maybe we'd even learn something new and exciting about hardware design.

Re:Mutation danger

[Jesapoo]

I don't see how it's different from using any natural product as a material used to make anything else. Wood, Rubber, Oil - these are all natural products with varying quality from item to item. You need to check each one - quality control. Surely this is exactly the same. Natural Nanowires would have to be tested to make sure they were suitable

Re:Mutation danger

[Tx]

Considering how rapidly bacteria tend to evolve...

I'm no microbiologist, but I suspect that statement is a bit simplistic. Some bacteria are very well known for their ability to resist and repair damage to their DNA, even under very harsh conditions. I guess choosing the right bacteria would be kind of important.

What would you clean the wires with?

[celardore]

If you used any kind of germicide or the like on your wires / kit, you'd be screwed!

Hooray and W00t in order.

[rtyall]

This could mean we'll all get to have mobile phones that we can barely even see the screen on, because they're so small. Fuck sidekicks, nanobutton phones where it's at.

I knew Douglas Adams was right.

[Jsleeman]

"Earth appears to be hard-wired." The Earth is a giant super computer and the answer to the Universe is 42!

I wonder

[StarfishOne]

I wonder if we will ever see companies like Intel and AMD hiring people trained in a biological field. :)

Pentium, Bacterium.. what's in a name? :D

Or: the new PetriDish(tm) cpu: bringing multimedia and culture to your desktop! ;P

This is not a power technology

[smartalix]

Let's be careful when talking about this tech, as it is a wire-building tech, not a power generation tech. This technology will be able to create the conductive structures needed in those next-gen fuel cells and batteries, but this is not microbial fuel cell technology.