Scientists Made a Virus That Can Charge Your Batteries

[Supertrek32]

So... Umm... does everyone on Tom's just not eat cheese, too? That's made with bacteria. And bacteria can hurt you, man.

You come in contact with billions of harmless microorganisms (including viri) every single day. They are literally covering every inch of your body right now. The VAST majority of viri are harmless to humans. So why do you never hear about the harmless ones? Because (like so many other things) it doesn't affect us, so we don't care. It's not worth the time to study the harmless ones because it's better spent figuring out how to fight the ones which actually make a difference in our every day lives.

 

[alxianthelast]

Oh, so this is where the Midi-chlorians come from..

If ingested, I can has super powers if I'm struck with enough force?

In each cell is impregnated with this virus, hopefully otherwise benign I wouldn't need to eat as long as I stayed above 50mph?

If I put these in my eye lids would blinking produce enough power to run AUG contacts, iris and layered thin-film replacement retinas?

 

[husker]

[citation][nom]Grand_Admiral_K[/nom]The only kinds that do that at all are from other mammals (and for reasons I don't quite understand, birds as well).[/citation]
I had to think of this for a couple of minutes but then I realized it is because birds are direct evolutionary descendants of dinosaurs, and if you re-arrange the letters of dinosaur you get "is our dna". ;-)

 

[husker]

[citation][nom]supertrek32[/nom]So... Umm... does everyone on Tom's just not eat cheese, too? That's made with bacteria. And bacteria can hurt you, man.You come in contact with billions of harmless microorganisms (including viri) every single day. They are literally covering every inch of your body right now. The VAST majority of viri are harmless to humans. So why do you never hear about the harmless ones? Because (like so many other things) it doesn't affect us, so we don't care. It's not worth the time to study the harmless ones because it's better spent figuring out how to fight the ones which actually make a difference in our every day lives.[/citation]
I do not doubt the truth of what you are saying, but I think people are concerned because they are talking about introducing something that did not have to compete on the the battle field of natural selection to come into prominence, nor has it coexisted with other life for a long period of time. Just throwing something new into the mix could have some unintended consequences. I'm not an expert but I'm just saying comparing these new virus to existing ones may not be an apples to apples comparison for that reason.

 

[TheBigTroll]

this would be great for my keyboard. all i have to do now is figure out a way to put them inside my keyboard letters to power my laptop

 

[velocityg4]

I'm just waiting for the little oopsie from some scientist genetically engineering some virus or bacteria and ends up wiping out 95% of mankind by mistake.

 

[molo9000]

I'm no biologist, but aren't viruses just lifeless matter unless they are inside a host cell?
How can they create energy?

 

[Guest]

The virus in question is a bacteriophage; it infects bacteria, not humans. These viruses really are harmless to humans or any form of life that's equal or more advanced in complexity than a yeast cell. You could swallow a whole load of them and the only adverse affect would be to the bacteria in your gut.

And the viruses weren't "made". They just took a common bacteriophage (named M13) and attached it to a device. They then added a few extra mutants to a single protein on the virus to give the device a bit of extra charge. Not exactly dangerous stuff here.

This is actually safer than the vast majority of piezoelectric materials/devices. It's also less toxic than a normal everyday battery.

 

[JerryC]

Really?!?! Are you people really so silly that you think this is going to cause a global disaster? There is NOTHING dangerous about what they are doing. This isn't going to spontaneously transform into some super bug that kills billions of people. Its just not possible so just stop. 😱

 

[acadia11]

Um no.

 

[cookoy]

To recharge your virus powered battery, open the canister, spit on it and close the lid tight again.

 

[youssef 2010]

Charge as you walk. Good for power-hungry devices.

 

[dalauder]

The sheer number of people posting here with absolutely no knowledge of biology astounds me. There are viruses that affect humans, dogs, lizards, coconut trees, and just about every other living thing.

There are crazy coconut tree viruses that make the branches (aka palm fronds) fall off. Do you think those viruses are gonna mutate into something that causes human arms to fall off anytime soon because I live too close to coconut trees? Of course not!

So long as these researches didn't take something like human influenza and alter it, and especially if it's a non-mammalian virus, then it poses ZERO risk to humans.

 

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]velocityg4[/nom]I'm just waiting for the little oopsie from some scientist genetically engineering some virus or bacteria and ends up wiping out 95% of mankind by mistake.[/citation]You've been watching too much science fiction and not reading enough science.

Biological weapons are intentionally engineered in labs--not "little oopsies" someone playing around with bacteriophages making an error.

It's like saying that you shouldn't screw around with your car's internal combustion engine because you might accidentally make a thermonuclear device. That would, of course be impossible because you'd lack the enriched uranium (along with many other components) necessary to make that error. Making huge leaps between things that are barely related is fiction--not science.

Hollywood writers cause a lot of ignorant people to misunderstand science as if it's some fantastical magic.

 

[AntiZig]

I'm seeing one problem with this, how are they planning the keep those viruses alive while they are secluded inside an electronics device? Make them autotrophic via electricity?

 

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]AntiZig[/nom]I'm seeing one problem with this, how are they planning the keep those viruses alive while they are secluded inside an electronics device? Make them autotrophic via electricity?[/citation]I was wondering about that and the only things I've got are may require both:
1) Semi-permeable membrane to allow air or moisture or something in.
2) Photosenthetic organisms.

 

[jasonkaler]

A virus powered nano machine. Isn't that a cyborg?

 

[urbanman2004]

I'm kind of leery about having a virus any close to me. Sorry, but I'm not taking my chance for a marginal increase in my cell battery charge