Microbes, the dominate life on Earth?

--------- #1374 - Microbes - Dominant Life on Earth

- Microbes are everywhere and they could be doing more work for us, if we understood them. Here are some examples:

- Attachments : picture

- 2012, the year of the microbiologist. Microbes are everywhere and doing many things that we are just learning about. Microbes are the dominant life form on Earth. For every cell in your body there are 10,000 microbes living in you and on you. They digest your food and they protect you from disease. We can benefit greatly by learning more of how these critters operate.

- Our world’s peak oil and peak minerals has passed. All the low hanging fruit in oil and minerals has been harvested. Future resources will be harder to get and cost more. Unless we find better ways to get our energy. Microbes might be a good solution to mining lower and lower metal/oil concentrations.

- The right bacteria can extract low grade ores cheaply and at ambient temperatures. A metal concentration of less than 1% would normally be uneconomical to mine. However, seeding a waste heap with the right bacteria, irrigating it with diluted acid, and these simple bacteria can extract 85% of this remaining metal. The bacteria feed on the waste, their waste generates reactive ferric iron and sulfuric acid, this waste decomposes the rock and frees up the valuable metals for easy mining.

- Acidithiobacillus is a bacteria that lives in pyrite deposits, metabolizing iron and sulfur and producing sulfuric acid. “Acidi” has a genome of 2,800,000 base pairs, 65% G-C content. It has a single flagellum. Its metabolic energy is derived aerobically by oxidation of inorganic sulfur compounds or ferrous ions.

- Leptospirillum is another iron-oxidizing bacteria. It too is used in industrial bioleaching converting metals to soluble form that can be easily extracted from the ore. The bacteria cells are spiral shaped, 500 nanometers wide and 3,000 nanometers log. The cells affix to carbon using ferrous iron as the electron donor and oxygen as the electron acceptor. “ Leptos” are found deep underground in the mines, enveloped in a pink biofilm gel, floating on the surface of water in the mine pits.

- These are two of the bacteria that oxidize iron and sulfur to gain energy. You and I oxidize carbon to get energy.

- Desulfovibrio and Desulfotomaculum are bacteria cultivated to neutralize acid and create sulfides that bind to copper, nickel, and other metals pulling them out of solution. ”Desulfs” can be used to clean up pollution and acid run-off common in old abandoned mines.

- “Desulfs” cause food spoilage in poorly processed canned food. It is that rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide gas when the can is first opened. “Desulfs” bacteria get energy from hydrogen sulfide (H2S) instead of from photosynthesis. It is a life form that does not depend on the Sun’s energy. It may be the life form we find on other planets and moons.

- “Desulfs” are straight or curved rods, highly heat resistant. They are common inhabitants in soil, water, geothermal run-off, and insect intestines. They are best identified as sulfide “ stinkers”.

- Since the 1950’s biomining has been in use. Today 20% of the world’s copper comes from biomining. Old slag and scrap heaps are now called “ore” again. There are still a lot of old mines that need to be cleaned up.

- Another use found for microbes is in air filters. Pig farms, slaughter houses, sulfur plants, and many other industries create a cabbage-like stench for their neighborhoods. Passing their exhaust air through corrugated cardboard filters filled with bacteria can remove this stench. Plants in Denmark that have installed these bacteria filled filters do not get complaints from their neighbors anymore.

- We need to learn more about microbes. They could be our best business partners in the future. We could be getting our resources and a clean environment at the same time and in the natural way. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, January 11, 2012