
Genetically Modified Bacteria Conduct Electricity - gsmethells
http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/materials/genetically-modified-bacteria-conduct-electricity-ushering-in-new-era-of-green-electronics
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ChuckMcM
That is an interesting piece of work, it makes me wonder what happens if they
escape the lab and into the soil around the building. What happens if these
guys turn the topsoil into a giant conductive sphere. It will probably do
wonders for the RF noise floor, considering everyone would be standing on a
giant ground plane.

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daveguy
Fortunately the ground is already a giant ground plane.

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ChuckMcM
Sort of and sort of not, it is an infinite (for all intents and purposes) a
sink for charge, but its conductivity is low and its dielectric coefficient
fairly high. As a result its reflectivity to electromagnetic waves is mixed.
If it were to become much more conductive, its reflectivity would become much
much higher and more uniform. RF energy would just bounce back up into the air
on its way.

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dogma1138
How much cooler/scarier would lightning storms then become? If the ground can
hold considerably more charge near the surface can get to the point of ground
lightning becoming considerably more common?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light)

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zxv
"The X-ray diffraction analyses suggest that the metallic-like conductivity of
G. sulfurreducens pili can be attributed to the packing of aromatic amino
acids with a characteristic spacing of 3.2 Å, which enables effective -orbital
overlap and electron delocalization."

