article_snippet: Bacteria growing on particles of magnetic crystal may form natural rechargeable batteries, according to new research.
article_snippet: Scientists at the University of Tübingen in Germany have found that colonies of two types of bacteria can grow on a mineral called magnetite.
article_snippet: Scientists have found that colonies of two types of bacteria can grow on a mineral called magnetite.
article_snippet: Scientists at the University of Tübingen in Germany said that in the wild this may allow the magnetite crystals to act like natural rechargeable batteries for the bacteria.
article_snippet: In our study our only looked at iron metabolising bacteria, but our speculate that it might be possible for other non-iron metabolising organisms to use magnetite as a battery as well - or if other non-iron metabolising organisms can be made to use it, through genetic engineering,' Dr James Byrne, who led the work at the University of Tübingen said. '
article_snippet: Could engineering iron metabolising bacteria increase the energy production or is iron metabolising bacteria limited by the magnetite itself? '
article_snippet: In principle, if iron metabolising bacteria could be engineered with more of these electron carriers, then iron metabolising bacteria could increase the speed at which iron metabolising bacteria use the magnetite itself as a battery. '
article_snippet: This graph shows the percentage change in charge on the magnetite caused during daylight and nighttime conditions.
article_snippet: Rhodopseudomonas palustris removed electrons from the magnetite itself, causing the charge to fall while Geobacter sulfurreducens added electrons to increase charge on the mineral during the night .
article_snippet: The research team found that during the 'day time' Rhodopseudomonas bacteria harvested electrons from the magnetite, reducing Rhodopseudomonas bacteria electric charge.
article_snippet: During the night, Geobacter took over and dumped electrons back onto the magnetite crystals, recharging Geobacter.
article_snippet: Geobacter adds electrons to the iron in the magnetite crystals while metabolising other organic material.
article_snippet: The researchers grew the bacteria on nano-sized magnetic particles of magnetite (left), which can be seen gathering on the inside of the bottle beside the magnet on the right in a solution of purple bacteria .
article_snippet: The flow of electrons is critical to the existence of all life and the fact that magnetite can be considered to be redox active opens up the possibility of bacteria being able to exist or survive in environments where other redox active compounds are in short supply in comparison to magnetite.'
article_snippet: This diagram shows the conditions that the scientists believe leads to the bacteria (marked in pink) adding or removing electrons to the magnetite (the black circle) according to water levels and sunlight available .
highlights_snippet: Scientists at University of Tübingen, Germany, grew bacteria on magnetite .
  