Exoelectrogen - electricity producing bacteria all around us!

In a recent video Robert Murray Smith described a different possible explanation for the "soil battery".
(I admit I tend to fall into the "probably just a galvanic reaction" camp.)


From web searching, it looks like they were just starting to hit it bigtime in 2018-2019... then, you know... "stuff" happened...

(Not in the above search results, but something else I found of note:
Here's how MIT has come up with to detect the little critters.)

A few things crossing my mind right now:
1) The weight of the soil microbiome is striking me as amazing all over again.  (As Geoff Lawton said, "It's not the soil itself - it's the soil life that is the most important element.")
2) Makes me wonder what kinds of crazy things are happening in the ground beneath high tension lines or even surrounding the grounding rod of an average home.
3) A lot of common gut bacteria are even like this, which, I'm thinking, could account for some of the mysteries of the "gut-brain axis" thing(?)

Thanks for sharing this! Love going down these rabbit holes of new ideas and possible discoveries. As he points out, the more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't know yet. I also love how scientific discovery accelerates. Looking at where we were even 50 years ago, it's stunning how far we've advanced with science and technology (not all good, admittedly).

K Eilander wrote: 2) Makes me wonder what kinds of crazy things are happening in the ground beneath high tension lines or even surrounding the grounding rod of an average home.

Me too. What are you speculating might be going on? Lots of growth, interaction and cross breeding, or sterile death zones due to overload?

Curious what you think, this isn't something I have learned much about.

I looked into microbial fuel cells several years ago. I found it fascinating, but never got around to making anything. I suspect the ones with an aqueous solution would be too temperamental to make work on a small scale, and I wondered about the longevity of the proton exchange membrane.

It's one of those things where I felt we have been deceived by "science." All my life, I had heard there are two types of bacteria: aerobic and anaerobic, and aerobic needed oxygen. It turns out they don't, but rather they just need oxygen's electron configuration. If deprived of oxygen, they can move other electrons if provided. If they flow through an electric circuit, so be it.

The main idea I ended up with was actually the most permaculturey even though I hadn't heard the word at the time. Aerobic bacteria live in the top layers of soil, as deep as oxygen penetrates, as I understand. I imagined having a layer of stainless mesh, or even better a layer of charcoal (if it conducts well enough) below this layer (where there is no oxygen) to act as an electrode. Then on top of that layer would be a layer of normal soil complete with bacteria and plants growing normally with a corresponding electrode in it. I think it would be possible to establish an electron environment where  the aerobic bacteria would live happily shuffling electrons between the two electrodes and through our circuits. I suspect the energy density would be rather low, but the system could be made quite huge, and would hopefully be maintenance free (maintenance would be very difficult if ever needed) and would be quite environmentally friendly.  I'm sure this is an oversimplification, and there would be many details to figure out such as spacing, soil\clay type, bacteria type, plant type, etc., but the basics of it make sense in my mind.

I wonder if there could be a way to use this concept to keep my greenhouse warmer in cold weather? Plenty of damp soil in containers and buckets.

K Eilander wrote:
A few things crossing my mind right now:
1) The weight of the soil microbiome is striking me as amazing all over again.  (As Geoff Lawton said, "It's not the soil itself - it's the soil life that is the most important element.")
2) Makes me wonder what kinds of crazy things are happening in the ground beneath high tension lines or even surrounding the grounding rod of an average home.
3) A lot of common gut bacteria are even like this, which, I'm thinking, could account for some of the mysteries of the "gut-brain axis" thing(?)

About #3 - the gut and the gut microbiome have a direct connection to our mood, food cravings, many facets of general health and the normal nervous system signaling mechanisms apply to the ENS (Enteric Nervous System), "There are estimated to be 100 million neurons in the human small intestine alone, making the ENS the largest collection of neurons and glia outside the brain, and by far the largest division of the peripheral nervous system (Furness, 2006).Oct 31, 2018." I expect that the gut bacteria moving electrons because it's 'easy' as stated in the citation rather enjoy the constant influx of flavin molecules we provide and may indeed play a role in some of the signaling by the ENS. I find it equally intriguing that the right electrical stimulation may "manipulate gut bacteria to improve our health or fight disease – or just make tastier cheese or yogurt."

@Janice Foss
The mother earth news did an article many years ago on heating your (green) house with a compost pile or chicken poo.