Could bacteria be… a bright spot?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Ecosystems need the sun for power, and so do we. So what do we do when night falls?
Lights out, Shunling Li and team from Kunming University of Science and Technology.
They discovered a bacterium called Bacillus megaterium. It can store daytime solar energy by bonding with iron minerals in the soil.
In controlled environments, they also found the bacterium could use stored energy to convert the iron into even more energy!
The researchers recognized the bacterium’s potential to provide energy in the dark. It could also be used to remove toxic metals from the Earth!
Now there’s a story to light up the night!
Reference: Li, S., Chen, Y., Wu, M., Zhang, P., Cui, P., Duan, W., Pan, B., & Xing, B. (2025, August 22). A bio-photovoltage soil-microbe battery for antibiotic degradation in the dark. Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes. https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/ebp-0025-0006