Science News for Students - Spring 2021

Nanowires from bacteria can turn water into electricity.

Will bacterial ‘wires’ one day power your phone? These protein strings can pull electricity out of moist air anywhere By Alison Pearce Stevens W

(UMass) in Amherst. He uses nanowires in the electronics he’s been designing. Super tiny, each is just a billionth of a meter (three-billionths of a foot) wide. But Yao had a hard time getting enough of them for his research. Discouraged, he mentioned the problem to a microbiologist who also works at UMass. This Derek Lovley told Yao about bacteria that make nanostrands of protein. To find out if these

hen Jun Yao started a new job, this electrical engineer wasn’t

looking to create a “green” source of power. But chance helped him discover a way to use an all-natural protein to turn water into electricity. Yao works at the University of Massachusetts

ELLA MARU STUDIO/COURTESY OF UMASS AMHERST

18 SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS | Invention & Innovation