Future Technology Trends

The protein nanowires of the bacterial cell Geobacter sulfurreducens conduct electricity. There are a number of people investigating this capability. Recently, researchers have synthesized a biological supercapacitor. It stores electrical charges in the c-type cytochromes on the biofilms of these organisms. The cytochromes have a relatively large electron holding capacity. The protein filaments enable the movement of current from one area to the next. This is apparently one of the first demonstrations of a self-renewing supercapacitor. The biofilm was placed between two gold anodes. The scientists mention the mechanism is actually a form of capacitance called pseudocapacitance. This feature is the result of chemical reactions in the cytochrome. Ultracapacitors are a method to complement or replace batteries for certain applications. Some of the properties of this living capacitor are comparable to synthetic ones. The academics state that these can be grown inexpensively. They also can repair themselves and the parts replicate over time.  Read More »

Biological cellular-based nanorobotics may be able to piggyback on what evolution has already accomplished. Instead of miniature machines, these would be genetically engineered “intelligent” artificial cells. They may have a greater range of abilities than their evolved counterpart as they would be designed to fulfill specific niches. There has been recent work on genetic logic gates for robust digital-like synthetic biology. This is dissimilar to how an electronic circuit runs. The operation happens by way of signal transduction, instead of the flow of current. It might be easier to function in a messy environment. Another mechanism for computation is microbial nanowires derived from the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens. The filaments conduct electricity. They are 3 to 5 nanometers in size and can be several micrometers in length. Perhaps these could be utilized in a cell to provide information-processing capabilities. Read More »