Now microbes can create energy, too

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.

[Phantom @ May 11th 2006 4:32AM]

That takes the cake. I hear the first time about such! And how many we yet do not know.....

[Frank @ May 11th 2006 5:27AM]

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.

[Bob @ May 11th 2006 6:38AM]

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.

[Skip @ May 11th 2006 7:08AM]

Microbes have been _converting_ energy for millions of years, not producing it. Energy can't be produced.

[Frank @ May 11th 2006 7:55AM]

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)

[strider_mt2k @ May 11th 2006 9:03AM]

I for one welcome our new microbial over, uh, under, um...hmmm.

[Ryan @ May 11th 2006 10:03AM]

Energy must be able to be created. It didn't just come out of nowhere, did it?

[e-mail]

[BobbyW @ May 11th 2006 10:16AM]

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.

[brownopher @ May 11th 2006 10:45AM]

#8,

I think he was posing a philosophical question.

[Scabies @ May 11th 2006 10:55AM]

#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.

[Scabies @ May 11th 2006 10:55AM]

what am I thinking, I say 11, I mean 8. I need more energy (and less cold medicine)

[jonvon @ May 11th 2006 12:40PM]

just think, some day my wife will ask me to put more sludge in the flashlight. ;-)

[steve @ May 11th 2006 1:30PM]

o my bio teach said sometin about this
and o ya
matter cannot be created or destroyed, (insert rest of line here, i forgot)

[nilram @ May 11th 2006 1:33PM]

Oooh, and I can auction off that old cheeze in the fridge on Ebay!

[first law of thermodynamics @ May 11th 2006 2:27PM]

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.

[shin @ May 11th 2006 4:34PM]

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.

[BobbyW @ May 11th 2006 5:03PM]

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!!

[Crackpipe @ May 11th 2006 5:05PM]

I for one welcome the our new microbial powered self lighting crack pipes.

[Reg @ May 11th 2006 9:53PM]

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!