Microbes build electrical wires

THE BOFFINS and the boffinettes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a tiny biological structure that is highly electrically conductive.

The breakthrough shows how micro organisms can be used to clean up groundwater and produce electricity from renewable resources.

Researchers found that the conductive structures, known as "microbial nanowires" are produced by microorganism known as Geobacter.

Each nanowire is 20,000 times finer than the finest human hair, but quite durable and more than a thousand times long as they are wide. This makes them extremely useful if you were going to make a very very small computer.

They will also allow the formation of mini-power grids to clear contamination at waste sites.

They also have the ability to convert human and animal wastes or renewable biomass into electricity. This is astonishing but apparently true, and it is here. µ