5 ms·
Cable bacteria are living batteries
- dsign 1y agoDoes this mean that bacteria in the middle of the cable live off the electric potential alone (and, I suppose, whatever nutrients they can find at their position in the wire, even if they are not energy-given)? If so, one could build biochemical factories for producing glucose polymers that use solar panels instead of leaves. Leaves are more practical by almost all accounts, except that they are not easy to deploy in space's vacuum....
- teruakohatu 1y agoIt allows the lower cells in the cable to perform cellular respiration by transferring electrons up the chain. This benefits the top cells in the chain by making the mud less hospitable to competitors. So the bottom cells and top cells all win. There is a much better article here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250130131404/https://www.science.org/content/article/electric-mud-teems-new-mysterious-bacteria https://web.archive.org/web/20250130131404/https://www.scien...
- diwank 1y ago[flagged]
- physarum_salad 1y agoArticle from the Aarhus University group that is a little less hyped up:"Are all microbes electroactive?" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666386424004909 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266638642...
- userbinator 1y agoTook me a while to realise this wasn't about bacteria that congregate around undersea cables.
- mr_toad 1y agoI was imagining bacteria feeding on my USB cables. There’s probably some species that lives in the gunk in the ports.
- xxs 1y agoWhat's special about usb cables? Some of them feature decent nylon braided jackets (and some even silicone ones). Other than that they are just run of of mill low wage cables.
- dummydummy1234 1y agoSame I was thinking electric power lines and bacteria that feed from the voltage differential.
- DonHopkins 1y agoI thought it was about a small group of bacteria secretly engaged in a plot or intrigue, often with the aim of gaining or maintaining power. It kind of is like cabal bacteria, actually.
- enthdegree 1y ago>“What is this?” I asked. “It looks like hair.” Marshall chuckled. “That’s them — the cable bacteria,” he said. “If you watch closely, you’ll see them twitching.” I stared harder. The filaments shifted. This schmaltzy student-teacher roleplay immersion-journalism feels false and infantilizing to me. It makes me mistrustful of the text and I avoid reading essays written like it. The facts are embedded in an artificial adventure narrative as one feeds a dog a pill by hiding it in peanut butter. Why? Would the non-sensationalized, plainly framed information content be too un-stimulating for readers? Are false narratives hidden inside? >Obama chuckled. "You mean the Chaos Emeralds?"
- sgarland 1y agoSpeak for yourself, I enjoyed it. The immersion makes it more interesting.
- Demiurge 1y agoI think it’s safe to assume every commenter speaks for themselves. I agree with the grandparent comment, this narration is cheesy and I couldn’t get through it, or figure out the point. If it’s fan fiction, it should be labeled as such. But, if there is news in there, I’d like a TLDR synopsis. Fortunately, there is a browser extension for that :)
- cwmoore 1y ago"It's all stories."
- ytrt54e 1y agoAsimov Press / Nico McCarthy write excellent stories; well worth having a look at the Substack if you are not familiar with them.
- m348e912 1y agoThe potential (positive) environmental impact of cable bacteria is notable. "Given that rice agriculture alone accounts for about 11 percent of human-driven methane emissions, adding cable bacteria to rice paddies could have an enormous positive impact on the environment." Who knew rice paddies were such a huge contributor to climate change.
- cma 1y agoMethane isn't cumulative in the way CO2 is, it degrades to CO2 in the atmosphere in decade timescales.
- m348e912 1y agoIt sounds like you're downplaying methane's impact on climate change. I don't know enough about climate change to challenge your point but it does seem like methane a serious enough issue that some countries have considered culling hundreds of thousands of livestock to reduce emissions and meet climate goals. https://www.dairyherd.com/news/business/ireland-proposes-culling-200-000-cows-help-meet-climate-goals-farmers-push-back https://www.dairyherd.com/news/business/ireland-proposes-cul...
- CommenterPerson 1y agoHmmm .. was looking for some potential about power generation, guess the idea never sparked.
- physarum_salad 1y agoMicrobial fuel cells have been researched for quite a while. Its a brilliant idea but within an incredibly competitive technology space (e.g. lithium, etc). Living materials also die or work differently each time they are implemented (e.g. see issues with device to device variation in neural organoid sensors for chemicals/"chemical noses").
- ordu 1y agoHmm... It would be nice to replace axons in human with these structures. The speed of propagation of spikes will be much higher. I'm not sure that it worth it to replace axons in brains, but those long axons in a spinal cord and in optic nerve can really benefit from the faster signal propagation and reduce the reaction time.
- AIPedant 1y agoAxons are not just wires, they also do computation and signal processing: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn1397 https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn1397 Your idea would sinoly not work.
- swayvil 1y agoMy boss says the same thing about me.