Microscopic workers of the world unite! There’s a trend floating around laboratories: designing tiny mechanisms that can build other devices from the atomic level up. The concept isn’t new, but we’re finally seeing some real progress in the field. When most people think of these tiny workers, there’s just one word on their mind: nanobots. But we’re here to tell you that the playing field is much wider than that. Biology is getting into the micro-worker game.
Virus-Built Batteries from MIT
Some could give you a cold, the Swine Flu, or Ebola, but viruses may just end up being humanity’s best tool. Researchers at MIT have created the next generation of battery assembled using special genetically engineered viruses. These batteries are close to out-performing the lithium-ion standards used today, and will soon exceed them in scale and power. Better yet, the virus built batteries are green-energy — constructed without hazardous chemicals or waste. Who knew that viruses could help save our environment?
Of course, no virus comes out of the wild willing to make batteries. You have to rewire the little guys to become happy workers.
That’s where Dr. Angela Belcher comes in. She’s the head of MIT’s Biomolecular Materials Group and the genius behind the virus-built batteries. Belcher added two genes into a virus called M13. These genes caused two changes: the virus built amorphous iron phosphate (a-FePO4) into its shell and the virus started hunting down and attaching to single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs).
For those of you who know your chemistry (no, not the relationship kind), you’ll recognize these materials as key ingredients in building better conductors. The mixed structure of SWNTs and amorphous iron phosphate creates a great cathode (negative end) of a battery. By using these materials, the viruses create a battery that has lower toxicity, lower cost (based on materials), and is more stable than current lithium-ion technology. In short, these viruses kick the Energizer Bunny’s® butt.
And the viruses work for free. Once you get the genetic modifications correct, they just need materials. You place them in water with some ions and they build a battery the same way that other organisms build shells. As Belcher points out, that’s one of the big benefits of using biological tools: they follow their genetic instructions and work on their own. Another benefit is that selection and evolution help you improve your tiny workers again and again.
A genetically engineered virus (yellow and red) attaches to a carbon nanotube to help form the next generation of compact and powerful batteries.
Viruses: powered by fear?
But wait, you say, you’re afraid of what these viruses might do if unleashed on the world. Can’t they mutate into a terrible disease? Might they stop building batteries and start building weapons of mass destruction? Couldn’t these little electronic-minded viruses one day develop into *gasp* Decepticons™?
Let’s get the facts straight. These viruses are bacteriaphages, meaning they hunt down and eat bacteria, not humans. Second, Belcher and her cautious colleagues have only adapted two genes. Just two, so there is little chance of rampant mutation. Last, the viruses are relatively fragile things, that’s why the process to make the batteries has to be so environmentally friendly. The little guys would die off otherwise. In short, there’s no reason to be afraid of these engineered viruses, they just want to build you batteries. Won’t you let them try?
Right now the batteries can only handle being charged and discharged about 100 times, and there’s just enough power for a LED. Belcher thinks that once she and the rest of her crew can get the batteries working on a larger scale, however, we will see virus-built batteries powering laptops, cell phones, possibly even electric cars. It’s for potential like this that Dr. Belcher was named one of Rolling Stone’s 100 People Who are Changing America, and why she’s been featured on NPR and the BBC. In the end, it’s not just the viruses who are doing all the work.
Tags: battery, genes, genetics, virus, virus battery
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I’d just like to point out that it doesn’t take much DNA to change the function of an organism – with this virus as an example, a ’small portion’ of the DNA was changed, turning it from a bacteriophage into a battery.
Completely changing it’s function and goal in life.
And unless we’re straight cloning them, their DNA will be evolving as they breed successive generations.
I mean, they sound harmless, but what if the battery leaks and spills a tiny, unnoticed droplet into your mineral water? Hopefully then the nanotubes are the make-it or break-it part of the equation, otherwise they might turn your drinking water into a battery while you’re not lookin.
What if they spill into the ocean, which is full of minerals?
I don’t mean to detract from the awesome accomplishment they’ve done here, I’m just hoping these concerns will be addressed i.e. tested and not just dismissed as ‘unlikely’ or one-in-a-million possibility, as there will probably be millions of millions (i.e. trillions) of these things in any large sized battery.
At least testing is as easy as dropping them in mineral water and sea water and watching what happens.
Viruses have been around a lot longer than we have, so it is wise to respect their abilities. Even smallpox, “eradicated,” is still with us in the lab and thus remains a clear and present danger to humans through accident or malicious design.
Gotta respect Nature too, because she always possesses the power to kill you.
Oh, and before anyone steps up with the “nanotubes aren’t found in nature, [insult to your intelligence]” argument, I’d like to point out that nanotubes were discovered as a result of electrical experiments with graphite electrodes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube#Natural.2C_incidental.2C_and_controlled_flame_environments
I.E. lightning and already-burnt carbon.
I’ve actually got a lot of feedback along the same vein of Nick’s comments and I’d like to address some of them. My general approach, that there is nothing to fear from these genetically modified, battery-building viruses, is largely a response to the regularly alarmist approach taken to g.e. technology that is the default stance of many in the media. There are concerns, there are dangers, there are worst-case scenarios, but it is a shame that we automatically worry about these concerns without first considering how wonderful the development is in the first place.
That being said, I think Nick and others are right when they point out that a self-replicating mechanism (biological or otherwise) has some inherent risk. All the life around us on our planet is risky in a similar way.
While the modifications to the M13 virus may increase the risk associated with it, I’m not sure how that worst case scenario would evolve. The M13 now bonds to amorphous iron phosphate in water and to SWNTs. An “evolutionary” step to a more dangerous task (say bonding to NaCl ions in salt water and creating a battery out of the ocean) would only be catastrophic if we discount all the other chemicals, UV radiation and general virus-killing mechanisms there are naturally occurring.
It is also unclear if battery building (actually cathode building, but that’s for another comment) is really advantageous to the virus in the first place. Building batteries expends energy that would otherwise be used to propagate the virus. Thus, it would seem that selection would be away from battery building unless the virus was under constant stimulus otherwise. That constant stimulus is provided by the control of scientists in a lab, but would likely disappear outside of such conditions. In other words, even if the virus “got loose” it would seem most likely for it to return to be a simple bacteriophage. There’s no advantage to it building batteries in the wild.
There are other concerns I could address, but I am feeling my own acute lack of expertise becoming unbearable. Likely Dr. Belcher or others could better address any concerns we could dream up here and come up with more likely ones. If I can find a reliable forum or upcoming conference on Ethics and Genetic Engineering I will post it here. I think there’s a lot to be learned from such debates.
I would like to reiterate my stance, however, that it would be wonderful to hear about a powerful development in technology and be filled with hope and optimism. Cynicism and pragmatism have their place (rightfully so) but we cannot make scientific progress based on those outlooks alone.
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