Now microbes can create energy, too
By Marc Perton 
posted May 11th 2006 4:20AM
posted May 11th 2006 4:20AM
We assume that, off in some lab, down in a petri dish, there's a serious grudge match going on. How else to explain the fact that, mere weeks after we first heard that scientists were training viruses to create electricity, there's an announcement that another lab-coated team is coaxing microbes to produce power as well? This time, the action is at Ghent University in Belgium, where researchers have found that certain microbes are able to break down organic matter in water and produce electricity in the process. One species in particular, Brevibacillus agri, turned out to be particularly adept at turning sludge into juice, and may someday form the basis of organic fuel cells. If the virii don't get there first, that is.
That takes the cake. I hear the first time about such! And how many we yet do not know.....
Ooooooooold news!
For a decent overview see:
http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/biofuel/biofuel_cells_contents.html
And microbes have been producing energy for millions of years, converting this energy into an electric current is the actual novelty.
The scientists main discovery, however, had to do with the co-evolution of the electrochemical properties of the fuel cell and the actual microbial community.
Microbes have been _converting_ energy for millions of years, not producing it. Energy can't be produced.
Very true Skip!
Correct phrasing is indeed of utmost importance!
But you get my point don't you?
I'm ashamed (having a PhD in chemistry)
I for one welcome our new microbial over, uh, under, um...hmmm.
Energy must be able to be created. It didn't just come out of nowhere, did it?
ryan@engadget.com
Ryan-
Are you serious?
Think about it. It takes energy to 'make' energy. Some places pump water up a hill at night, so that when electricity is more expensive during the day they can release the water and have it drive turbines. They aren't making the energy, they are shifting it around, storing it. It took energy to get the water up the hill.
There isn't some energy crop that just multiplies and waits to be harvested.
#8,
I think he was posing a philosophical question.
#11
Except rabbits
I'm pretty sure the use of the word 'energy' was unintentional. We mean energy consumers can use (electricity) as #2 stated.
what am I thinking, I say 11, I mean 8. I need more energy (and less cold medicine)
just think, some day my wife will ask me to put more sludge in the flashlight. ;-)
o my bio teach said sometin about this
and o ya
matter cannot be created or destroyed, (insert rest of line here, i forgot)
Oooh, and I can auction off that old cheeze in the fridge on Ebay!
Everyone should know the first law...
The first law of thermodynamics is often called the Law of Conservation of Energy. This law suggests that energy can be transferred from one system to another in many forms. However, it can not be created nor destroyed. Thus, the total amount of energy available in the Universe is constant. Einstein's famous equation (written below) describes the relationship between energy and matter:
E = MC2
In the equation above, energy (E) is equal to matter (M) times the square of a constant (C). Einstein suggested that energy and matter are interchangeable. His equation also suggests that the quantity of energy and matter in the Universe is fixed.
I think Ryan's point is that at some point the fixed amount of engery/matter in the universe had to be CREATED. Thus it's a philosophical question as much as it is a scientific one. Even assuming that you can't create or destroy matter NOW, in order for it to exist, it must have been created at some point in the past. Thus energy was at one point CREATED. You can argue that energy always "existed" but that still begs the question of where the energy came from, it's a circular argument.
Funny how since *Ryan* asked the "philosophical" question everyone assumes it's a deep question, whereas if some random engadget poster said the same thing he'd be pelted with abuse!!
I for one welcome the our new microbial powered self lighting crack pipes.
Woah, suddenly I feel I'm on Slashdot. We've got the overlord jokes, the attempts at distilling science into terms lamers can understand, and the witty one-liners. Any second now we'll have, "but do the microbes run Linux?"
Ryan, if you weren't joking, you're an ignorant ass!