Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory working in collaboration with Northwestern University have developed bacteria-powered microgears to further develop “hybrid biomechanical systems”. Utilizing hundreds of Bacilus subtilis to form minuscule gears of just 380 microns, four times thicker than the human hair, Andrey Sokolov of Princeton University, Igor Aronson from Argonne, together with Bartosz A. Grzybowski and Mario M. Apodaca from Northwestern University made them swim in a nutrient-rich solution along with lots of identical bacteria.
The microgears have slanted spokes that help them swim around the solution. Their direction changes as the organisms collide with the spokes of the gear. Depending on the oxygen supplied, the machine turns on and off. This collective movement produces power that can be used “to mix tiny amounts of chemicals, or deposit materials into new patterns or structures. And someday he’d like to get the bacteria themselves build the gears they would push.”
Via: Forbes
