Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

I am electronics engineer, I have a 'Biology' question, I need help?

hi,

Thank you so much for clicking on my question. I am an electronics engineer. For that you know and don't know about us, it is a painful discipline to be in, if you don't stay upto date you'd be history in less that six months, as technology change quite fast in our world. In our line of business you get hired fast and fired even faster.

Coming to question.

I know some anaerobic bacterias survive in extreme conditions with no supply for oxygen at all. I want some data or clinical material, like say what are the types of anaerobs that trouble humans, say with infections, like the Clostridium sp.. they produce powerful toxins that helps break down human tissue and decompose.

The whole point of this is, has any study been done in this area that allows us electronic engineers to benefit from? I am particularly intersted at the in the potential difference in voltage in terms of energy they dissipate when they breakdown or decompose tissues, If it is a life form, they surely have some sort of biopotential by means of chemical reaction which they have. We have electronics that work in minute nano-voltages, micrometer chips and communication gears that you can literally work on human heat emissions alone. Just to be clear, I am not interested in heat dissipation of decomposition by anaerobes, but p.d. of bio-potential from chemical reactions on various living tissues which are ambient for their growth/multiplication.

Is there a biologist here who could email me or point me to the right source. I am currently working on a nano electronic chip design that cannot be attached to any known power source mankind has ever invented yet for industrial grade sadly.

( I remember reading during college days of a certain anaerobic bacteria that lives on tooth, which made it all the way to moon on a certain electronic equipment which was accidentally transferred by one of the techs, and later when on a second mission to the moon a yr or two later when the device was brought back to earth, nasa found this bacteria still alive.)

Update:

Aaargh! 3 stars and emailed 11 different people and not a single answer. sigh!!!

Update 2:

4 stars now. still no answers. I emailed 9 different 'Top Contributors' of this category and still nobody would even answer me. Seriously? Are there not a single person who could help me? Or atleast point me in the right direction? This is messed up.

5 Answers

Relevance
  • 1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    You are correct, anaerobic microorganisms do exploit specific, often low voltage chemical reactions to get their engery. Quite often, the low energy reactions are used to power a proton pump, which transports H+ from inside the cell to the outside. This creates an electrochemical gradient which then powers a protein called ATPase, which creates the basic unit of energy of the cell, ATP.

    These reactions are of course catalyzed by proteins, and require the presence of a lipid bilayer to act as a semipermeable membrane. Biological molecules tend to be fairly fussy about the conditions they operate under, so whether they could be used for electronics is doubtful. However, I'm not an expert in this field, so don't take my word for it.

    As for a researcher to talk to, the following link will take you to the profile of the microbiologist Dr. Michael T. Madigan. He's an author of the textbook I use as a source, which covers bacterial metabolism in some detail. With any luck, he'll be able to at least point you in the right direction.

    http://www.micro.siu.edu/faculty_staff/Madigan.htm...

    If that fails, you'll probably have better luck getting meaningful replies if you try to contact biologists directly.

    Source(s): Brock, Biology of Microorganisms, 11th edition.
  • 1 decade ago

    "The researchers isolated a strain of Geobacter sulfurreducens which they called KN400 that grew prolifically on the graphite anodes of fuel cells. The bacteria formed a thick biofilm on the anode surface, which conducted electricity. The researchers found large quantities of pilin, a protein that makes the tiny fibres that conduct electricity through the sticky biofilm."

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I've been getting New Scientist,Scientific American, and American Scientist magazines for years and I'm sure I've read some articles on this topic within the last 6-7 years.

    Try New Scientist first.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Yes biomedical engineering is right. There is also another option medical electronics.

  • 1 decade ago

    hey scott can u take another look at my question

Still have questions? Get answers by asking now.