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Electric life forms that live on energy
- lukas099 11y ago"that live on pure energy" -- Don't we all?
- Amorymeltzer 11y agoI think it's fair to distinguish between organisms that process electrons and organisms that process all manner of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to produce carbon molecules that are used to generate molecules that induce inhaled molecular oxygen to function as an electron acceptor and drive ATP production.
- lukas099 11y agoFair. But that's only one form of respiration we already knew about, you anthropocentrist, you XD.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dnautics 11y agoThe statement in the article that they take no other nutrients is patently false and poor writing. They must have a source of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, trace metals, etc. The interesting thing about these organisms is that they can take in energy poor forms of these elements that require energy to process into usable forms (e.g. co2 instead of sugar) and to do this they can draw power from electrons directly instead of indirectly using chemistry. As for engineering them, one of the largest problems is that these organisms are mismatched to our electrical technology. Biology is low voltage high current (~500mV is already too high because that electrolyzes); our power systems are high voltage because P = I^2R second order in current but P = IV first order in voltage so by pumping to a higher voltage you can limit power losses over transmission distances.
- ghkbrew 11y agoprevious discussion of this article on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055520
- scarmig 11y agoI really was hoping to see a purely electric life form--maybe some kind of electric noise waveform that resonates around a circuit and reproduces by cannibalizing other noise. Hmm, I wonder if lasers could be considered a form of life?
- p1esk 11y agoIf it has a circuit to flow through, then how is it different from what's going on in a computer or in a brain? A pure electric life form would be a bunch of electrons moving somehow in a vacuum. If it needs anything atom-based to exist it's not "pure".
- ArekDymalski 11y agoOr something like: hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hooloovoo
- castratikron 11y agoNice clickbait. What exactly is "pure" energy, anyways? As I understand it, energy comes in many different forms, but I don't know what makes electric potential energy any more "pure" than gravitational potential energy.
- geuis 11y agoNot really clickbait. Well kind of, but the article is fairly thorough at a high level. "Pure energy" in this case is the bacteria are able to obtain electrons directly from their environment in order to power their internal chemistries that are needed for all cells to continue functioning. Those chemistries involve repair and reproduction mainly. The key difference to all other known biology is that while all cells (singular or part of animals) use electrons for repair and reproduction they get from ATP.
- mhurron 11y agoI've seen that Star Trek episode as well.
- gpvos 11y ago(2014) New to me, though.