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MIT Researchers Harness Viruses To Split Water
ByronScott writes "A team of researchers at MIT has just announced that they have successfully modified a virus to split apart molecules of water, paving the way for an efficient and non-energy-intensive method of producing hydrogen fuel. 'The team, led by Angela Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules. Over time, however, the virus-wires would clump together and lose their effectiveness, so the researchers added an extra step: encapsulating them in a microgel matrix, so they maintained their uniform arrangement and kept their stability and efficiency.'"
I can just see it now. Some of these get dropped into an ocean, multiply, and eventually deconstruct the majority of the world's water into oxygen and hydrogen. It's the end of the world!!
Despite the self-limiting nature of the technique they describe, whether it ends up working in production or not, I guarantee you that, in a matter of days, someone is going to be flogging a script around Hollywood studios about a runaway virus destroying all the water on earth and the team of hot, young scientists who save the day at the last possible minute by using something compounded from randomly selected Greek and Latin roots.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Great for leading your people to freedom from Nanopharaoh.
Hey, this is Slashdot. Stop depressing us with your world's-not-going-to-end attitude.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Then they should make a variant of the virus that splits C02.
Perhaps they could use light as the energy source required. You could even make sugar with it! But you'd need to collect the sunlight - since red and blue are the highest-energy colors, it would need to be a green pigment.
If only such a thing existed...
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
If you've made it this far down, you've waded through a river of bullshit. From the half-cocked fear mongering Luddites, past the post-intellectuals joking about doomsday, over the no-news-is-new crowd that already knew about this, to the same old arguments we have about oil and alternative energy.
So congrats, you owe yourself a beer. Now get back to work.