In the future, if
your smartphone has started to run out of battery, you may have to turn to the
invisible bugs to charge it up.
A team of scientists
from Oxford University showed how the natural movement of bacteria could be
harnessed to assemble and power microscopic "windfarms" or other
man-made micromachines such as smartphone components.
The study used
computer simulations to demonstrate that the chaotic swarming effect of dense
active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and
provide a steady power source.
Researchers say these
biologically driven power plants could someday be the microscopic engines for
tiny, man-made devices that are self-assembled and self-powered - everything
from optical switches to smartphone microphones.
Co-author Dr Tyler
Shendruk said: "Many of society's energy challenges are on the gigawatt
scale, but some are downright microscopic. One potential way to generate tiny
amounts of power for micromachines might be to harvest it directly from
biological systems such as bacteria suspensions."
Dense bacterial
suspensions are the quintessential example of active fluids that flow
spontaneously. While swimming bacteria are capable of swarming and driving
disorganised living flows, they are normally too disordered to extract any
useful power from.
But when the team
immersed a lattice of 64 symmetric microrotors into this active fluid, the
scientists found that the bacteria spontaneously organised itself in such a way
that neighbouring rotors began to spin in opposite directions - a simple
structural organisation reminiscent of a windfarm.
Shendruk added,
"The amazing thing is that we didn't have to pre-design microscopic
gear-shaped turbines. The rotors just self-assembled into a sort of bacterial
windfarm."
Senior author Julia
Yeomans noted, "Nature is brilliant at creating tiny engines, and there is
enormous potential if we can understand how to exploit similar designs."
The study is
published in the journal Science Advances.
Representative Image
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