Results 1 to 20 of 20

Thread: Bacteria that consumes electrons

  1. #1

    Default Bacteria that consumes electrons



    Not only does it use this to power itself, but it also constructs a cable to pass the flow of electrons as well. Not only is this beautiful and demonstrating infinite diversity, but what's more there probably are commercial applications of something like a battery that would have a fuel source that the bacteria would dissemble into electrons and then perhaps tap into it.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/...re-energy.html
    "Unlike any other life on Earth, these extraordinary bacteria use energy in its purest form – they eat and breathe electrons – and they are everywhere

    STICK an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein's monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these "electric bacteria" are very real and are popping up all over the place.

    Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form – naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types, Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.

    That should not come as a complete surprise, says Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. We know that life, when you boil it right down, is a flow of electrons: "You eat sugars that have excess electrons, and you breathe in oxygen that willingly takes them." Our cells break down the sugars, and the electrons flow through them in a complex set of chemical reactions until they are passed on to electron-hungry oxygen.

    In the process, cells make ATP, a molecule that acts as an energy storage unit for almost all living things. Moving electrons around is a key part of making ATP. "Life's very clever," says Nealson. "It figures out how to suck electrons out of everything we eat and keep them under control." In most living things, the body packages the electrons up into molecules that can safely carry them through the cells until they are dumped on to oxygen."
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 21, 2014 at 03:37 PM.

  2. #2
    Kyriakos's Avatar Praeses
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Thessalonike, The Byzantine Empire
    Posts
    9,816

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    Very interesting.

    I could see this (if dealt by honest/intelligent scientists) leading to breakthroughs in electric use/regeneration/harvesting etc. But i doubt it will happen with the overall state of corruption and misanthropy around.
    Λέων μεν ὄνυξι κρατεῖ, κέρασι δε βούς, ἄνθρωπος δε νῷι
    "While the lion prevails with its claws, and the ox through its horns, man does by his thinking"
    Anaxagoras of Klazomenae, 5th century BC










  3. #3
    Laetus
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Argentina
    Posts
    8

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    fascinating, lets hope it will be used for the good of humanity.

  4. #4
    Magister Militum Flavius Aetius's Avatar δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Rock Hill, SC
    Posts
    16,318
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    "Spock if you say 'Fascinating' one more time I'm going to punch you in your Vulcan mouth."

    "Interesting."

    Indeed, I didn't know these existed. I wonder if they will evolve to feed off of our electrical grid?

  5. #5

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    The site enews has been staying on top of the Fukushima debacle practically since the tsunami/nuclear accident happened. One of these strange things reported and photographed is an unusual black fungus that has appeared all around the affected region. See:

    http://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/13/j...ack-substance/
    http://enenews.com/photos-radioactiv...-be-everywhere

    Likewise, some time ago, a strange cobweb producing material was found at the cooling tanks at the Savannah River nuclear site.
    http://enenews.com/mystery-bacteria-...source-unknown
    http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-...-nuclear-waste

    Initial reports by officials described "destroying" the sample for concern on contamination and spreading it. Sounds like something right out of a science fiction novel or film, right?

    Let's say some mixed ash containing organic and inorganic compounds is full of toxic radioactive elements like Strontium, Cesium, Plutonium, etc. If some living material is within it, and then adapts and isn't killed off, then evolves...how mysterious and wonderful that would be. Who knows? The reported threads or cobwebs sounds like this newly discovered bacteria that lives off of electrons.

    Both might be adapted fungus or bacteria as discussed within this topic.

    The problem with radioactive isotopes is concentration in the food chain due to one species consuming it (say it's seaweed), then another species consuming the fish that ate the seaweed like another fish or those isotopes entering krill (tiny shrimp) and eaten by some whale species. Eventually such material gets concentrated in humans.

    It's the very model of why DDT was banned in America.
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 21, 2014 at 09:25 PM.

  6. #6
    Kyriakos's Avatar Praeses
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Thessalonike, The Byzantine Empire
    Posts
    9,816

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    So they will soon have Ohmu and a Toxic Jungle in Japan?
    Λέων μεν ὄνυξι κρατεῖ, κέρασι δε βούς, ἄνθρωπος δε νῷι
    "While the lion prevails with its claws, and the ox through its horns, man does by his thinking"
    Anaxagoras of Klazomenae, 5th century BC










  7. #7

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    I don't know about that.

    The two most disturbing and recent comments from Japan include these postings:
    http://enenews.com/japan-doctor-toky...izens-future-g

    Dr. Shigeru Mita’s essay published in the newsletter of Association of Doctors in Kodaira (Tokyo), translated by WNSCR, July 16, 2014: "Why did I leave Tokyo? To my fellow doctors, I closed the clinic in March 2014, which had served the community of Kodaira for more than 50 years, since my father’s generation, and I have started a new Mita clinic in Okayama-city on April 21. [...] It is clear that Eastern Japan and Metropolitan Tokyo have been contaminated with radiation [...] contamination in the east part [of Tokyo] is 1000-4000 Bq/kg and the west part is 300-1000 Bq/kg. [...] 0.5-1.5 Bq/kg before 2011. [...] Tokyo should no longer be inhabited [...] Contamination in Tokyo is progressing, and further worsened by urban radiation concentration [...] radiation levels on the riverbeds [...] in Tokyo have increased drastically in the last 1-2 years. [...] Ever since 3.11, everybody living in Eastern Japan including Tokyo is a victim, and everybody is involved. [...] The keyword here is “long-term low-level internal irradiation.” This differs greatly from medical irradiation or simple external exposure to radiation. [...] People are truly suffering from this utter lack of support. [...] If the power to save our citizens and future generations exists somewhere, it [is] in the hands of individual clinical doctors ourselves. [...] Residents of Tokyo are unfortunately not in the position to pity the affected regions of Tohoku because they are victims themselves. Time is running short"

    A longer version including patient's symptoms of long term low level radiation poisoning.
    http://www.save-children-from-radiat...odaira-city-t/

    And this:

    http://enenews.com/japan-corresponde...-serious-issue
    KWMR 90.5 FM, July 14, 2014 (h/t Fukushima Response) — Umi Hagitani, interpreter, Japan correspondent for Ecological Options Network (at 9:30 in): "The survivors of the nuclear power accident and supporters of children… are asking the city of Koriyama to evacuate them because of the exposure to the radiation. But the women of Fukushima, their statement demanded that the reduction of the radioactive exposure is more urgent than the current federal policies and practices in Japan, which is to force people to remain in the contaminated area… Many students of the 5th and 6th grade in elementary school, they attend something called a cancer seminar where they learn about how cancer is such a typical story for many people, they don’t have to worry about it… They’re trying to even build a junior high school and high school combined together by 2020 in Futuba County — that is the closest place to the Fukushima Daiichi. But the administration of the town invited and made a survey of the kids, and I guess kids were not told about the options that they could evacuate, they made it look like they’re interested in coming back. It seems that right now the Abe cabinet has already schemed out a lot of brainwashing and making people feel that it’s possible to decontaminate — and its making the suffering of the people invisible… I feel like that after 3 years, there are more cover-ups and silencing the survivors of this ongoing nuclear accident in Fukushima Daiichi, and it’s really well supported by the structural power hierarchy… it’s very scary to see this. The current situation is that the Ministry of Environment is putting fake radioactive monitors all over. >> Full KWMR broadcast here"
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 22, 2014 at 02:55 AM.

  8. #8
    Kyriakos's Avatar Praeses
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Thessalonike, The Byzantine Empire
    Posts
    9,816

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    ^Sounds very nasty.....
    Λέων μεν ὄνυξι κρατεῖ, κέρασι δε βούς, ἄνθρωπος δε νῷι
    "While the lion prevails with its claws, and the ox through its horns, man does by his thinking"
    Anaxagoras of Klazomenae, 5th century BC










  9. #9

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    It's very nasty since radioactive isotopes have huge half-lives, are diffused throughout the ocean and air currents. It's a phenomena that is transmitted on contaminated debris and running into the Northern Hemisphere.

    Nature doesn't stay still, and species can evolve, so there's that nasty habit of the survivors being somewhat immune to the immediate effects, and further evolved creatures being more immune. How many robust animals live in the contaminated zone of Chernobyl? A lot actually since there's no predation by humanity, though they are riddled with cancer and their tissues are irradiated.



    Humans are weaker; our immune systems become compromised.
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...chernobyl.html

  10. #10
    Denny Crane!'s Avatar Comes Rei Militaris
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Newcastle, England
    Posts
    24,462

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    One of the most interesting threads on TWC this year.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    http://www.southcarolinaradionetwork...ar-fuel-tanks/
    Another old article about webs and bacteria in the nuclear energy industry. They ended up killing it with hydrogen peroxide. One wonders if it will start appearing elsewhere like substations or utility companies.

    "SRS scientists studying mysterious bacteria growth in old nuclear fuel tanks
    September 10, 2012 by Matt Long

    Scientists at the Savannah River Site say they are trying to figure out how bacteria is growing in an underwater tank used to hold spent nuclear fuel rods. Last year, operators said they found what looked like cobwebs growing inside the pool at the site’s L-Basin. After getting a sample, the scientists at Savannah River National Laboratory said they now believe the “webs” are actually bacteria colonies.

    The cobweb-like growth is barely visible on the spent fuel rods in this January image provided by SRNL (File)

    “Operational personnel observed some weird-looking stuff on top of the fuel racks,” said Christopher Berry, the senior technical adviser for Savannah River Nuclear Laboratory. The laboratory and other facilities at the site are operated by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), which has an Energy Department contract.

    He said the bacteria consisted of previously unknown DNA sequences, “I won’t give you a percentage, but there were a number of sequences that were just not in the database.” However, he added that even a traditional soil sample will often find previously unrecorded DNA sequences.

    Berry said the bacteria do not appear to be having a negative effect on the pool or rods so far. No corrosion has yet been detected. But he says officials want to be rid of it just the same. The problem is that the bacteria are believed to feed on carbon— which is not supposed to be in the tank.

    Berry said the focus right now is to find that food source, because the problem will not be fixed otherwise. “(We) want to remove the material. If they remove the material and they don’t remove the food source, this will crop up again.”

    Researchers don’t currently know where the carbon is coming from, says SRNS spokesman D.T. Townsend, “If it was just murky water that had been sitting there for decades, we could understand there could be a food source, but it’s just the opposite,” he told South Carolina Radio Network, “This is extremely purified water… It’s quite a mystery.”
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 23, 2014 at 08:32 PM.

  12. #12
    Magister Militum Flavius Aetius's Avatar δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Rock Hill, SC
    Posts
    16,318
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    "The problem is that the bacteria are believed to feed on carbon— which is not supposed to be in the tank."

    Civilization destroyer right there. Almost everything on the planet has carbon in it or uses it.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    Your body is filled with deadly anaerobic bacteria that lives in your gut. As long as other helpful bacteria is around, and competes with it (like Lactobacillus) then a nasty strain like Clostridium difficile doesn't colonize and take over your gut. Or there's always an amount of Clostridium botulinum in the soil, and some of it gets in canned food, but is killed by the sterilization process. Or there's always Clostridium perfringens hanging around in the air, but unless you have an open untreated wound (often caused by a puncture wound), then you don't get gangrene because you cleaned it, and if infected, you get antibiotics.

    So yes, a newly detected bacteria that lives off of some electrons, or one that lives off of carbon, might seem potentially scary, but humanity has long had a history, both beneficial and detrimental due to bacteria. There are so many types, and constant evolution, that any analysis of bacteria will turn up unknown types based upon DNA analysis.

    I'm rather intrigued how the bacteria uses electrons i.e. what's the process for digestion? How does the micromotors work that move the flagella-like appendage that lassos on to food sources? What's the feedback mechanism that detects tactily that it's found a food source? What's the sensory input that this is achieved? Does it "taste" with that appendage too i.e. contact and food source detected, start transmitting along the conduit? How is the nanoconduit made? Is it more efficient than our wires? Could that be used in computer circuitry? All of that is fascinating.

    Life is remarkably weird, and then there are nonliving things like viruses and prions that are like robot mechanisms that could be called undead on top of all of that as well. A virus (some look like spiders with a plunger mechanism right out of Aliens) is really good at replication of itself, but not much else. A prion is a misfolded protein that replicates itself. Neither are truly alive.
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 24, 2014 at 04:33 PM.

  14. #14
    Magister Militum Flavius Aetius's Avatar δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Rock Hill, SC
    Posts
    16,318
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    I've wondered if we could genetically engineer a virus like that to fight MERSA.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    Quote Originally Posted by Magister Militum Flavius Aetius View Post
    I've wondered if we could genetically engineer a virus like that to fight MERSA.
    It's MRSA i.e. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

    Every antibiotic is doomed to fail based upon the evolution of immunity of the surviving bacteria. So initially Methicillin was given when others in the same antibiotic family were given and failed to be as effective.

    Now the problem is manifold in medicine. I can only speak from an American perspective, but maybe your physicians and patients think differently.

    A patient who thinks they're sick has signs and symptoms. The patient can't be objective, for they're suffering, so if they report something, it's a symptom. If an independent trained medical person reports it, it's a sign, and objective (if the medical personnel is being attentive, not overworked, and considerate). [A mnemonic: the subjective patient's symptoms, the objective doc sighs," It's a sign".]

    Now when sick, the patient has no idea what is the problem, only that it might be a lifestyle issue of stress (sleep loss leading to an immune system breakdown, or overindulging of recreational drugs, or whatever),or it could be a virus, or it could be some kind of bacterial infection. There's others like parasites, but we'll keep it simple.

    So when a case lasts, but the patient has no idea what his/her symptoms mean, then they assume it's bacterial. On top of this, antibiotics generally help alleviate symptoms by cutting down on replication of the bacterium, but that takes some time plus compliance by the patient (who's sick, mentally addled, and not 100%). But we have minimal antivirals to deal with a virus.

    The doc doesn't know. What the doc has is experience plus a worksheet from the CDC saying a lot of X types of cases are prevalent in your area. So he/she makes an educated guess based upon signs, compliance from the patient, what's going around, and blind luck. Then prescribes antibiotics only if they simply must. That means some antibiotics will be WRONG for it takes too long to culture many of them, and their initial assessment was wrong, or based upon bad patient history of their symptoms, or being too exhausted to make a good decision.

    So the patient demands antibiotics because they've once been sick and some antiobiotic helped them. So antibiotics get generated as prescriptions, and way too many result in superstrains of resistant bacteria. Worse, our hand cleaners now contain antibacterial ingredients like Triclosan, now banned in some places. Why?

    Staph aureus is a bacteria that exists on every human being. Ordinarily it might colonize your nasal passages, but as long as one gets enough sleep, a good diet, exercise, and a positive outlook, then your immune system can cope. But if you are killing Staph aureus all of the time, some of it survived from too much Triclosan, got washed down the sink, some of it entered your nasal passages, got on your hands, and so forth.

    Which means a lot of people have MRSA on themselves, but it's undetected, and not typically a problem, unless they're actively sick and shedding it.

    We now use a mix of viruses on meat products in the USA. It's controversial as they are bacteriophages (like the virus spider animation). That potent mix of bacteriophages is supposed to cut down on the massive amount of bacteria on butchered meat, but what's the effect on creating superstrains of potent bacteria that didn't get killed by the bacteriophages? They adapted and are still passed to the consumer.

    You may have heard of the old antibiotic Augmentin. It's given to lots of sick children. It's a blend of Amoxicillin and Clavulonic Acid (I probably misspelled those). Mixing antibiotics and additives can make it more difficult for bacteria to adapt. That's one old strategy, but eventually strains also adapt.

    Now here's the curious part, what of old herbal medicine? We have a paradigm that there's an active ingredient in a plant, and taking that plant as a tea, or a mix of several plants then had active ingredients. Then we could synthesize these active ingredients and give that to patients, and this would be more effective. What if the vast number of the complimentary phytochemicals in a plant, then mixed with even more phytochemicals in another plant, resulted in crossing many thousands of phytochemicals, and this meant it was IMPOSSIBLE for bacteria to ever adapt? It's plausible, but so far modern medicine (allopathic medicine) is largely based upon pharmacology of active ingredient that are injected into the blood (and therefore bypass the first pass effect of the liver or kidneys) or swallowed, or inhaled, or as a suppository, or as a sublingual (under the tongue).

    It might be that we could come up with a better handle on these complimentary compounds and the synergistic effects of combining them is the Future of infectious disease control.
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; July 28, 2014 at 10:16 PM.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    Quote Originally Posted by Magister Militum Flavius Aetius View Post
    I've wondered if we could genetically engineer a virus like that to fight MERSA.
    They are actually trying to re-engineer several virus species that have little or no effects on humans to specifically attack malignant tumor cells. Not only for the purpose of using the virus itself to shrink the tumor, but to induce the natural immune system to attack the tumor that is now filled with the viruses. Long term testing on this is currently underway with some success on animals. An engineered Herpes Simplex virus was tested on advanced melanoma and on head or neck cancer with good effect (52% total remission) and considerably more tolerable side effects than the toxic effects of chemotherapy.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncolytic_virus
    Last edited by Admiral Piett; August 07, 2014 at 06:00 AM.
    Heir to Noble Savage in the Imperial House of Wilpuri

  17. #17

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    Given the ability of a virus to adapt, and the ability for some virons to survive, and wide range such adaptation can happen and remain in a state of suspended animation and reactivated, I think such things are dangerous. I can certainly understand why people would put their faith in them as tools, or since Cancer is such a killer.

    When the human race is long gone, viruses will still be on the earth attacking bacteria or whatever species survives us.

    Medical researchers have "tagged" cancer cells in the past with a similar idea of then using that as a means of attacking or identifying them.
    Last edited by RubiconDecision; August 07, 2014 at 05:45 AM.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    I should mention that they code these viruses to be unable to replicate with their usual host cells so they have no real effect on healthy tissue. The successful trials were used by an altered Herpes Simplex virus which only infects the malignant cells. There's no danger with these viruses adapting. Even if it did the impossible and mutated to attack healthy cells again, it would only cause cold sores.
    Heir to Noble Savage in the Imperial House of Wilpuri

  19. #19

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    That's rather a naive post as Nature always finds a way. That's the whole study of Evolution, FF, that you're ignoring.

    The principle is being utilized in vaccines using adjuvants to stimulate an immune response through chemicals. To use viruses in this way, is perhaps a boethical issue and not merely a medical or scientific issue.

    Yes, you might inactivate the virus' ability to replicate, but what you might end up doing is passing on some aspect to the host tissue that is tumorous, and then it incorporates that genetic material, and then uses that code to create copies of something that has evolved which is dangerous.

    For example, every thing you eat up-regulates or down-regulates genetic expression. Every medicine you take does this too. Sunlight does this. Toxins do that. So that's how intimately change affects genetic expression. It's proposed that once mitochondria were another life form, that infected species, and then their genetic information allowed replication within species, and entered into a permanent genetic collaboration with species. So don't think that viruses intentionally introduced that are attenuated in some manner will not end up altering the genetic regulation of a species. This is why medical research is painfully slow. "Do no harm..."is rather a big deal.

  20. #20
    Indefinitely Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Ludbreg,Croatia
    Posts
    670

    Default Re: Bacteria that consumes electrons

    How about a bacteria that produces electricity when multiplying and eating it in the same time?Eating reproducing ratio is 1:2 = free energy source.

    Surely,we need to capture this energy the bacteria produces the same way we capture the lightning energy.

    No worries,many people capture lightning energy only once.....

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •