meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy - home energy storage

Catherine put an electrode on the ground and pump the electrons down. they will come: living cells that eat electricity.
We know that bacteria can survive on a variety of energy sources, but none of them are more strange than that.
Think of Frankenstein's monsters, except that these "electric bacteria" are very real and are popping up everywhere.
Unlike any other creature on Earth, electrical bacteria use energy in its purest form-naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals.
We already know two types, Shewanella and Geobacter.
Now biologists have shown that they can attract more people by tempting rocks and sea mud with a little bit of electric juice.
Experiments on the growth of bacteria on battery electrodes show that these novel thinking
The incredible form of life is basically eating and draining electricity.
Kenneth Nealson of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said it was not entirely surprising.
We know that life is an electron stream when you boil it: "You eat sugar with excess electrons and the oxygen you breathe will automatically absorb them.
"Our cells break down sugar, and electrons flow through sugar in a series of complex chemical reactions until the sugar is passed to the electron-hungry oxygen.
“Life’s clever.
In the process, cells make ATP, and it comes up with how to absorb electrons from everything we eat and control them as molecules for almost all of our biological energy storage units.
Mobile Electronics is a key part of making ATP.
"Life is smart," Nealson said . "
"It figured out how to take electrons from everything we eat and control them.
"In most organisms, the body packs electrons into molecules that can safely pass them through the cells until they are dumped into oxygen.
"This is the way we make all the energy, it's the same for every organism on this planet," Nealson said . ".
"In order to get energy, electrons must flow.
That's why when someone suffocates another person, they die in a few minutes.
You have stopped the supply of oxygen, so the electrons are no longer flowing.
"The discovery of e-bacteria suggests that some very basic forms of life can eliminate sugary middlemen and treat energy in the purest form-electrons harvested from the surface of minerals.
"You know, it's really foreign," Nealson said . ".
"In a sense, aliens.
"Nealson's team is one of the few teams that grow these bacteria directly on the electrodes, using electricity and anything else to keep them alive-sugar and any other kind of nutrition
In humans, he says, this highly dangerous equivalent will be that we Power on by plugging our fingers into a DC power outlet.
In order to cultivate these bacteria, the team collected the sediment from the bottom of the sea, brought it back to the laboratory and inserted it into the electrode.
First, before applying a slightly different voltage, they measure the natural voltage on the deposit.
A slightly higher voltage will produce excess electrons;
A slightly lower voltage means that it is easy for the electrode to accept anything that is willing to transmit electrons.
Bugs in the sediment can "eat" electrons from higher voltages or "breathe" electrons to a lower voltage
The voltage electrode produces current.
The researchers found that this current was a signal of the type of life they captured.
"Basically, the idea is to take the deposit, stick the electrode inside, and then ask, 'Okay, who likes this? '?
Said Nealson.
Last month, at the Goldschmidt Earth science conference in Sacramento, California, Shiue-
Lin Li of the Nealson laboratory showed the experimental results of a long-standing respirator in the sediment collected at the port of Santa Catalina, California.
Yamini Jangir, also from the University of Southern California, presented separate experiments that increased the electrical breathing collected from a well in the Death Valley of the Mojave Desert, California.
At the University of Minnesota in Sao Paulo, Daniel Bond and his colleagues published experiments showing that they can cultivate a bacteria that takes electrons from the iron pole (mBio, doi. org/tqg).
Moh El, director of Jangir, said the study
Naggar, is probably the most compelling example we have grown so far on the electronic supply of food that has not been added.
But Nealson says there's a lot more to do.
Annette Rowe, his PhD student, has found up to eight bacteria that consume electricity.
These results are being submitted for publication.
Nealson is particularly excited that Rowe has discovered so many types of electrical bacteria that are very different from each other and do not have a bacteria like Shewanella or Geobacter. “This is huge.
That means we don't know a part of the whole microbial world. ”“This is huge.
That means we don't know, "it's just Jangir and El-who discovered this hidden biosphere-
Naggar wants to cultivate electrical bacteria.
"We are using electrodes to simulate their interaction," El-said . "Naggar.
"If you want, cultivate 'non-teacher '.
"The researchers plan to install a battery in a gold mine in South Dakota to see what they can find there.
NASA is also interested in things that live deep underground, because these creatures usually live on very little energy, and they may suggest patterns of life in other parts of the solar system.
However, electric bacteria can have practical uses on the Earth, such as creating biological machines, doing something useful while drawing their own strength from the surrounding environment, such as cleaning up sewage or
Nealson called them themselves.
Supply power to useful equipment or potatoes.
In addition to practicality, another exciting prospect is the use of electric bacteria to explore basic questions about life, such as what is the minimum energy needed to maintain life.
To this end, we need the next phase of the experiment, says Yuri goby, a microbiology scientist at the rensler Institute of Technology in Troy, New York: bacteria should not grow on one electrode, but on two
These bacteria will effectively eat the electrons on one electrode, use them as a source of energy, and discard them on another electrode.
Gorby believes that bacterial cells that eat and breathe electrons will soon be found.
"The electric bacteria that grow between the two electrodes can keep themselves almost forever," Gorby said . ".
"If nothing is going to eat or destroy it, then in theory we should be able to sustain this organism indefinitely.
"It is also possible to change the voltage applied to the electrode and apply the energy squeeze on the cells to the extent that they just do their best to keep them alive.
In this state, cells may not be able to reproduce or grow, but they are still able to be repaired on cell machines.
"For them, the work that energy does will be the ability to survive," Gorby said . ".
How much juice do you need to maintain the operation of a living electric bacteria?
To answer this question, you have answered one of the most basic existential questions.