Comments on: Bacteria unite to form living electric cables that stretch for centimetres

By: Nathan Myers

Nathan Myers — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:40:04 +0000

This has to be the coolest result of the decade. I’m particularly interested in the life of individuals in the middle of the cable: since they have no access to sulfides or oxygen, mustn’t we consider them to be entirely electrically-operated?

They must be diverting some of the flow of current to push protons against a gradient. It’s got to be a tricky negotiation: draw off too much power, and the current falls off. Draw off too little, and the neighbors can out-populate you. How do they enforce fair behaviour?

Are the chains really linear, or do they branch and converge so that no two consecutive electrons need follow the same path all the way from bottom to top? If they do branch, then at the branch point the electrons can choose for themselves the best route, and poorly-cooperating branches fail to attract enough current.

By: Tom Parmenter

Tom Parmenter — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:43:01 +0000

Trivial, but back in the 60s there was an attempt to update Muddy Waters’ sound by backing him with a gang of hot modern players. The resulting album, which deservedly flopped,was called ‘Electric Mud’.

By: Siddhant

Siddhant — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 05:40:47 +0000

Hi, I have another question. Sea water consists of salts and when an electric current is passed through salty water, it is expected that electrolysis will take place. (NaCl breaking down into Na and Cl, H2O breaking down into H and O).
Has anyone observed such electrolysis (apart from the electron transfer to oxygen)?
If the electrolysis is taking place, there has to be some mineral deposits (like Na).
Has anyone observed such deposits?

By: Can H.

Can H. — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:41:45 +0000

Hi. Thanks for that impressive news, but I have small question in my mind.

If I understand right, lower cells in that bio-cable, “eat” sulfides and used the released electrons from sulfides to obtain energy. After then, they transfer that “used” electrons to upper side to bind them with oxygen. So, the electrons are not accumulated at lower parts.

My question is that How the upper cells obtain energy? They just transfer the electrons that coming from bottom to oxygen to finish respiration cycle. They are just making the “garbage” process of respiration. Is energy is maintained by bottom part?

Thanks.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:26:53 +0000

This isn’t completely new to science, as interspecies hydrogen transfer has been well documented since the 1930′s. What is new, however, is that there are tools available to sense the currents at the cell level, as opposed to inferring them from the thermodynamics and biochemistry of bulk cultures.

Tools dictate progress. Once tools are in place, discoveries are inevitable.