Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy
Unlike any other life on Earth, these extraordinary bacteria use energy in its purest form – they eat and breathe electrons – and they are everywhere
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(Image: Derek Lovley/SPL)
By Catherine Brahic
Geobacter – a current favourite
STICK an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein's monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these "electric bacteria" are very real and are popping up all over the place.
Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form – naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types, Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.
That should not come as a complete surprise, says Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. We know that life, when you boil it right down, is a flow of electrons: "You eat sugars that have excess electrons, and you breathe in oxygen that willingly takes them." Our cells break down the sugars, and the electrons flow through them in a complex set of chemical reactions until they are passed on to electron-hungry oxygen.
"Life's clever. It figures out how to suck electrons out of everything we eat and keep them under control"
In the process, cells make ATP, a molecule that acts as an energy storage unit for almost all living things. Moving electrons around is a key part of making ATP. "Life's very clever," says Nealson. "It figures out how to suck electrons out of everything we eat and keep them under control." In most living things, the body packages the electrons up into molecules that can safely carry them through the cells until they are dumped on to oxygen.
"That's the way we make all our energy and it's the same for every organism on this planet," says Nealson. "Electrons must flow in order for energy to be gained. This is why when someone suffocates another person they are dead within minutes. You have stopped the supply of oxygen, so the electrons can no longer flow."
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25894-meet-the-electric-life-forms-that-live-on-pure-energy/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_gJ2teK5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_gJ2teK5E
FINALLY THEY ADMIT THE CRITTERS :P
One of the reason I think Spites could be life forms. Life does not have to have a long term life span to be life.
I would think from what we have seen that if there is anyway at all to get energy to live from anything it will happen, some life will form that uses that energy, or for symbiotic relationships like the Golden jellyfish jellyfish-algae partnership.
Clearly like can feed on anything, minerals, light, electric.
Interestingly also some of these lifeforms can advance just as they are, we know size has nothing to do with things, look at the human sized lobster they found. I can imagine a planet sized ameba.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11464854/Lobster-as-big-as-a-human-found.html
Quote from: Dyna on July 24, 2016, 12:21:03 AM
I can imagine a planet sized ameba.
So could Gene Roddenberry :D
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Reminds me of the 'Photonic Fleas' from
The Voyager Conspiracy:
Quote
TORRES: Captain, I need permission to shut down the sensor grid. Seven thinks a couple of insects are disrupting the power flow.
SEVEN: A mating pair of photonic fleas, to be more accurate, and possibly their offspring.
JANEWAY: And how did you arrive at this theory?
SEVEN: Last night, I downloaded six months of ship status reports into my new cortical sub-unit while I was regenerating.
PARIS: Learn while you sleep. I tried that once, It gave me a headache.
JANEWAY: Go on.
SEVEN: Eight weeks ago, an away team encountered a Kartelan freighter carrying supplies from sector four nine two, a territory that included a former Talaxian colony. Mister Neelix used the opportunity to acquire twelve kilograms of amber spice, a delicacy among his people.
TORRES: What does that have to do with the sensor grid?
SEVEN: On the same day, Ensign Kim was repairing a replicator in the Mess hall.
KIM: I remember that. Neelix told me to stick around and try something he was cooking.
SEVEN: No doubt made with the amber spice, which contained the larvae of the photonic fleas.
TORRES: How could you possibly know that?
SEVEN: Because I also downloaded data regarding their life cycles. The larvae flew out of the spice jar in search of their primary source of nourishment, plasma particles. The conduits within the nearby sensor grid contain an unlimited supply of these particles. Ensign Kim had unwittingly given the creatures access by exposing the grid. The now mature creatures periodically tap into the conduit for nourishment. When they do, the sensor emitters momentarily lose their resolution.
TUVOK: A logical, though highly speculative, analysis.