A hair-like protein hidden inside bacteria serves as a
sort of on-off switch for nature’s “electric grid,” a global web of
bacteria-generated nanowires that permeates all oxygen-less soil
and deep ocean beds, Yale researchers report in the journal Nature.
“The ground beneath our feet, the entire globe, is electrically
wired,” said Nikhil Malvankar, assistant professor of molecular
biophysics and biochemistry at the Microbial Sciences Institute at
Yale’s West Campus and senior author of the paper. “These
previously hidden bacterial hairs are the molecular switch
controlling the release of nanowires that make up nature’s
electrical grid.”
