----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 6:50
PM
Subject: [Sndbox] Bacterial energy
I don't usually type out whole articles, but U.S. News &
World Report has this annoying habit of charging for anything older than
two weeks, and I'm usually at least that far behind. :-) This is
just cool, though....
Best wishes,
Lowell
* * *
Bug Juice: Watts from Waste?
Charles W. Petit
USN&WR,
9/15/2003, p. 49
Hardworking microbes might power your laptop some day, or maybe even your
lawn mower. A recently discovered strain of bacteria efficiently makes
electricity while turning sugars in plant waste and other garbage into water
and carbon dioxide. The microbe grows in the mud under a Virginia bay,
but scientists reported this week that it also lives happily in an
experimental fuel cell, dumping electrons into its wiring with 80-plus percent
efficiency.
Electricity is part of the currency of living cells, which routinely
shuttle electrons about while getting energy from sugars. But other
biology-based systems tested in fuel cells demand additional,
efficiency-sapping steps to get the electrons to the circuitry.
Microbiologist Derek Lovley of the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, one
of the microbe's discoverers and coauthor of the new report in Nature
Biotechnology, says he's not sure the bacteria could deliver the oomph
needed for, say, cars. But a garbage-stoked fuel cell might run
electronic devices in areas away from power lines. Imagine wiring and
inoculating your compost pile, he says. "It would trickle-charge your
electric mower for next weekend, in time to make more grass clippings."
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