Bacteria can create natural battery

London: Bacteria can use tiny magnetic particles to effectively create a "natural battery", a new research shows. The bacteria can load electrons onto and discharge electrons from microscopic particles of magnetite. This discovery holds the potential of using this mechanism to help clean up environmental pollution and other bioengineering applications.

The flow of electrons is critical to the existence of all life and the fact that magnetite can be considered to be redox-active opens up the possibility of bacteria being able to exist or survive in environments where other redox-active compounds are in short supply in comparison to magnetite.