Microbes Can Light Up the World

Researchers at the Japan Science and Technology Agency found in this 2012 study that microbes like Geobacter sulfurreducens and Thiobacillus denitrificans can form small electric grids. These species cooperatively create electric currents through conductive minerals in soil, and can probably do so over a (relatively to microbes) large distance. These microbes and others like them are …

Geobacter bacteria use uranium reducing conductive pili “nanowires” to thrive in toxic waste

When most people think of the microbiology of the built environment they think of pathogens that hang out in buildings. Here’s a neat story about a helpful bacteria that lives in a very different kind of “built environment”… a uranium mill tailings site.  These tailings facilities are where all the waste and excess rock from …