DAWN TO DUSK NEWS: Power-packed bacterial spores generate electricity

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />

<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvSOsvuxD6X9SR0_dNXxUeHV1mDDmIPe3vQBrs5UST6_rnTd5GUdaM6wftHSllHc_oStZEIqQToUcjt3Cd_ppaRjZW7_TV6MqInIfMfLuOoj0OOA7WwgAvo7W6ISvC4tXp3fB4Cfs7GLW/s1600/notebook_itroducing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvSOsvuxD6X9SR0_dNXxUeHV1mDDmIPe3vQBrs5UST6_rnTd5GUdaM6wftHSllHc_oStZEIqQToUcjt3Cd_ppaRjZW7_TV6MqInIfMfLuOoj0OOA7WwgAvo7W6ISvC4tXp3fB4Cfs7GLW/s1600/notebook_itroducing.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">With
mighty bursts of rehydration, bacterial spores offer a new source of renewable
energy.</span><br />

<em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Bacillus </span></em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">spores quickly shrivel in dry times and bloat
with a blast of humidity. The transitions, which take about half a second, pack
a powerful punch that biophysicist Ozgur Sahin at Columbia University realized
could translate to usable energy. By smearing spores onto a flat piece of
rubber about the length of a human hand, Sahin and his colleagues developed a
spore-powered generator. In arid conditions, parched spores pull the rubber
into a curve, while wafts of wet air plump up spores and spring it flat again.</span><br />

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The
team linked the rubber to an electromagnetic generator, so that every flex
produced an electric current. By weight, spore power rivaled the juice in a car
battery, Sahin
and colleagues report January 26 in <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Nature Nanotechnology</span></em>. Since the spores tote such a
high energy potential—more than 1,000 times that of mammalian muscle—Sahin and
colleagues say energy-harvesting devices based on the dormant dynamos could be
linked into municipal grids to contribute a power boost to homes and cities.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyno6OtNtagEiffHqzUiN0dLy8WY2qdlF9RZsLyt7NTRilYtdZlF-Lelf7cjeM2pU4xJQ-j-Q7JZQPnJ60XPD5TzWWAH1NAYQZ0GtDxd_Mxy2xLXP52i46JxNQnlLMvLI3fkEvbCWcl6K/s1600/notebook_introducing_diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyno6OtNtagEiffHqzUiN0dLy8WY2qdlF9RZsLyt7NTRilYtdZlF-Lelf7cjeM2pU4xJQ-j-Q7JZQPnJ60XPD5TzWWAH1NAYQZ0GtDxd_Mxy2xLXP52i46JxNQnlLMvLI3fkEvbCWcl6K/s1600/notebook_introducing_diagram.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />

</div>

Power-packed bacterial spores generate electricity

With mighty bursts of rehydration, bacterial spores offer a new source of renewable energy. Bacillus spores quickly shrivel in ...