...or a Johnny Quest episode
Yeah. Next we teach them binary math, have them take over all functions normally being done by silicon, and...
Sounds like the beginnings of a horror movie. Or another AGW type scam to get funding to keep “scientists” flush with cash, because if we don’t study it, we’re all gonna DIE!
Midichlorians?
This is nuthin compared tp what Mrs. Obozo wants American kids to eat in her school lunch program.
I don’t know if buy any of this...
Reads more like the “new Scientist” hasn’t bothered to learn Maxwell’s Equations or even Googled the “Lorentz Force”.
There might be transfer of electromagnetic charge, but not necessarily mass transfer. Where mass transfer occurs, it is frequently associated with chemistry or even solid chemistry.
The energy level potential difference is what is associated with electric force (think Lorentz force), not the mass flow of electrons, except in ionic conduction. (and if the bacteria gained electrons, it would be losing energy, since they are negatively charged).
There do exist phenomenon such as biological corrosion, but a model of eating electrons misses the academic boat.
Spock: Fascinating Captain, I must study this phenomena closely.
Kirk: what do you think, bones?
McCoy: dammit Jim, I’m a doctor- not an electrician!
CC
New Scientist is not a credible for anything. Several months ago they published an article which claimed that humans were breathing too much oxygen. And we would all die as a result.
A ridiculous rag.
This is a radical departure for bacteria. I would not be surprised if it were in another microorganism, not a bacteria, but belonging to its own domain of life, called Archaea, formerly known as “extremophiles”.
While they are microorganisms, they are actually closer to plants and animals (eukaryotes) than they are to bacteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea
“Archaea use more energy sources than eukaryotes: these range from organic compounds such as sugars, to ammonia, metal ions or even hydrogen gas. Salt-tolerant archaea (the Haloarchaea) use sunlight as an energy source, and other species of archaea fix carbon; however, unlike plants and cyanobacteria, no species of archaea does both.”