E. coli light bulb

Scientists have turned E.coli microorganisms into tiny living light bulbs

DailyTechInfo based on the materials of the Next Big Future: Synthetic Biology competition team creates light bulb from e-coli

A huge amount of scientific data, knowledge and a high level of development of modern technologies determine that more and more often areas and areas of research are beginning to arise that lie on the border of areas that, as previously thought, do not overlap with each other at all. Scientists from Newcastle University are working in one of these amazing areas, this area is a kind of symbiosis of electrical engineering, electronics and biology, and the result of activities in this direction are a variety of electro-biological and electron-biological systems with a number of unusual properties and functionality.

As part of the 2016 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, researchers from Newcastle presented several of their developments to the public. The greatest interest was aroused by specially modified microorganisms of the E.coli species, transformed into tiny living light bulbs that glow, effectively absorbing thermal energy from the environment. The first of the pictures shown here shows a microfluidic system from the category of laboratory-on-a-chip, in the channels of which these luminous microorganisms are located.

In addition to tiny light bulbs, researchers from Newcastle demonstrated no less tiny live electrical capacitors, photoresistors, etc.

So far, all these efforts are aimed at creating microbiological fuel cells that generate electrical energy and process some types of organic and inorganic fuels for this purpose. Exactly the same principles can be used in the future to create elements that produce various types of fuel, using water, carbon dioxide and sunlight energy or energy from other renewable sources.

And further development of this direction can lead to the development of a number of electronic biological components, the combination of which, in turn, can give a very unusual and fantastic result. Just imagine some living objects that function like electronic devices, or vice versa, electronic devices that live, feed and perform the work for which they are intended.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 02.11.2016