Researchers show bacteria use natural materials to transfer electrons
(Phys.org) -- For years scientists have known that plants and animals transfer electrons between cells and because of that are able to consume food and use it to gain energy. Theyve also known that some microorganisms are able to transfer electrons between themselves and other organisms that are some distance apart. Whats not been known is how they do that. Now, a new study by a team of Japanese researchers has found that at least some bacteria use natural elements in the soil to transfer electrons and thus enable their survival. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they describe how they recreated the process by which bacteria communicate over distances in their lab by adding magnetite to the soil which caused previously non-communicating bacteria to begin interacting over a small distance.