A joint research effort between the United States and the United Kingdom could result in bacteria acting as microscopic “bio-batteries.” The powerful bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis, have been confirmed by scientists to generate an electrical charge.

Dr Tom Clarke, a lecturer at the school of biological sciences at the University of East Anglia and lead researcher on the project said the bacteria been observed influencing levels of minerals in lakes and seas, but how they did it was unclear.

Shewanella oneidensis, according to Clarke has occurs globally in rivers and seas.

They are in everything from the Amazon to the Baltic seas.

Scientists noticed that the levels of iron and manganese in the lake changed with the seasons and were co-ordinated with the growth patterns of the bacteria.

To understand the bacteria, Dr Clarke and his team made a synthetic version of a bactrium and hence discovered that the organism generated an electrical charge that effected a chemical change when the organism was in direct contact with a mineral surface. Clarke said:

People have never really understood it before. It’s about understanding how they interact with the environment and harnessing the energy they produce.

We might now be able to harness the power of the bacteria, for use in electrical circuits, and batteries.

It’s very useful as a model system. They are very robust, we can be quite rough with then in the lab and they will put up with it.

[Source: BBC News]