'Pin' lives in the deep sea

Scientists have discovered a "living battery" in the Pacific bottom, in bacteria that live near hydrothermal catheters.

According to the Science News website, when these microorganisms "cup" toxic chemicals sprayed from the bottom of the sea, they generate electrical currents that run across the walls of similar chimney structures that they consider 'home'.

'The amount of electricity generated by these bacteria is quite modest. But technically you can produce electricity continuously, "said Harvard University biologist and engineer Peter Girguis, and lead researcher.

Girguis presented his findings at a recent meeting of the American Society of Geophysics in San Francisco, USA.

In the report, he said he and his colleagues measured the current by inserting an electrode into a 'natural chimney' 2.200m deep in the sea at the Juan de Fuca range off the northwest coast. Pacific.

To learn more about the power source, the researchers designed artificial chimneys in the lab. A tube simulated inside the chimney is filled with dissolved hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells like rotten eggs but is a 'delicacy' for bacteria. The second tube, outside the chimney, contains only seawater.

Scientists bred bacteria on a piece of pyrite, a mineral found in natural chimneys, connecting two tubes. The electricity that the bacteria produce in the pyrite is stronger when they are fed more food.

Girguis believes that this process allows bacteria to come into contact with oxygen in seawater outside the chimney. In other words, creating electricity is actually the agent that allows bacteria to 'breathe'. "This discovery has changed the way we think about the metabolism mechanism in hydrothermal catheters ," he stressed.

Researchers hope that someday, these "live batteries" could be used to power research stations or scientific sensors in the deep sea.