Eco Trees

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have discovered a microbe called Geobacter that generates electricity when placed in wastewater and mud. Geobacter’s hairlike pili are extremely fine, only 3 to 5 nanometers in diameter or about 20,000 times finer than a human hair, and more than a thousand times longer than they are wide.

Researchers at the University of Georgia ave developed a successful way to grow molecular wire brushes that conduct electricity, a first step in developing biological fuel cells that could power prosthetic limbs, pacemakers and cochlear implants.