Blinged-Out Bacteria Put to Work in Fuel Cells

The boffins at Carnegie Mellon have done it again! This time they've devised a biological fuel cell that harvests the metabolic energy of bacteria using gold plates.

Professors Kelvin B. Gregory and Philip R. LeDuc say that the fuel cell is the size of a human hair. With electronics getting smaller and smaller and rare earth supplies dwindling, these minute fuel cells present an attractive alternative to traditional batteries going forward.

[CMU, Image from Technology Review]