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Nature 441, 274-277 (18 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441274a; Published online 17 May 2006

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Microbiology: Batteries not included
What can't bacteria do?

Nick Lane1

  1. Nick Lane is a science writer based in London.

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Among their many talents, bacteria are the world's best electrochemists, creating a life-powering flow of electrons in a startling range of conditions. In the first of two features, Nick Lane asks what limits, if any, constrain this ability. In the second, Charlotte Schubert meets the people trying to put this microbial ingenuity to practical use.

In 1977 Engelbert Broda, a physical chemist, then at the University of Vienna in Austria, made a startling prediction1. Nitrate and ammonia can and will react together in the way that oxygen and organic carbon molecules do.