Harvesting electricity from bacteria

Daily Mail : Scientists are one step closer to creating power stations that generate electricity from humble bacteria, writes David Derbyshire for the Daily Mail. Yesterday Tom Clarke of the University of East Anglia and coworkers published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They have shown for the first time how microbes are able to discharge tiny electrical currents from their cells to get rid of unwanted electronsthe byproducts of converting food into energy. By tethering bacteria directly to electrodes, the researchers were able to tap into this potential source of electricity, although at present the currents generated are too weak to be useful. Nevertheless, because some bacteria feed off pollutants, microbial fuel cells or “bio-batteries” raise the possibility that in the future, bacteria could be used to convert industrial waste, sewage, and uranium waste into electricity.