Eco Trees

Instead to be exterminated, viruses are used to build cheap and simple small sources of energy. In their initial experiments, the engineers of the Technology Institute from Massachusetts (MIT) have genetically modified viruses and obtained a protein that attracts the pieces from metal. Now, they have used this feature to build key components of microscopic batteries.

Batteries are consist of four basic components: an anode and cathode, which forming positive and negative poles, an electrolyte that transfer the electrical charge between them and a separator between the anode and cathode. In the MIT experiment, two layers of polymer, which serves as the electrolyte and separator, were placed at the top of a pillar of four micrometers.

Then, the genetically modified viruses were allowed to grow on the two layers, which began to draw the metal. Researchers have not yet found a virus for the cathode construction, this is the next step of the project, which became attractive for its simplicity and low costs involved.

Currently, there are no devices that require batteries as a tenth of a grain of hair. Nevertheless, in future, these micro-batteries could serve as a primary source of energy for a variety of devices from the nanotechnology world.