Current Events #2

For current events I researched the article, Using Magnetic Bacteria to Construct the Biocomputer of the Future. Researching this article made me more aware of the science of technology. During this article I learned that computers are becoming more and more difficult to make. Therefore researchers from the UK and Tokyo are developing ways to make computers to run on magnetic bacteria. They have already made little computer components with this bacteria similar to the conventional computers. The bacteria that they use is called Magnetospirillum magneticum which is a naturally occurring microorganism that lives in under water environments. When the bacteria eats some iron then it produces tiny crystals of mineral magnetite within itself. They think by giving them iron they can help run the future minuscule hard drives. However it is challenging to make these kinds of things like churning it out into regular shaped blocks of it. Basically they are trying to make things that produce electricity through cell membrane. They are more like nano scale tubes that are highly biocompatible. This however opens doors to knew ideas including health medicines for diseases. It also can aid in the biocompatible computers to help perform surgery. Someone said maybe they can make a bacterium that could be integrated into a spinning ferrofluid to store   information like the neutral network we use.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-05/using-magnetic-bacteria-builders-researchers-could-construct-biocomputer-future