

Electric life forms that live on energy - lelf
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25894-meet-the-electric-life-forms-that-live-on-pure-energy/

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ghkbrew
previous discussion of this article on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055520](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055520)

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dnautics
The statement in the article that they take no other nutrients is patently
false and poor writing. They must have a source of carbon, nitrogen,
phosphorus, trace metals, etc. The interesting thing about these organisms is
that they can take in energy poor forms of these elements that require energy
to process into usable forms (e.g. co2 instead of sugar) and to do this they
can draw power from electrons directly instead of indirectly using chemistry.

As for engineering them, one of the largest problems is that these organisms
are mismatched to our electrical technology. Biology is low voltage high
current (~500mV is already too high because that electrolyzes); our power
systems are high voltage because P = I^2R second order in current but P = IV
first order in voltage so by pumping to a higher voltage you can limit power
losses over transmission distances.

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castratikron
Nice clickbait. What exactly is "pure" energy, anyways? As I understand it,
energy comes in many different forms, but I don't know what makes electric
potential energy any more "pure" than gravitational potential energy.

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geuis
Not really clickbait. Well kind of, but the article is fairly thorough at a
high level.

"Pure energy" in this case is the bacteria are able to obtain electrons
directly from their environment in order to power their internal chemistries
that are needed for all cells to continue functioning. Those chemistries
involve repair and reproduction mainly.

The key difference to all other known biology is that while all cells
(singular or part of animals) use electrons for repair and reproduction they
get from ATP.

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scarmig
I really was hoping to see a purely electric life form--maybe some kind of
electric noise waveform that resonates around a circuit and reproduces by
cannibalizing other noise.

Hmm, I wonder if lasers could be considered a form of life?

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p1esk
If it has a circuit to flow through, then how is it different from what's
going on in a computer or in a brain?

A _pure_ electric life form would be a bunch of electrons moving somehow in a
vacuum. If it _needs_ anything atom-based to exist it's not "pure".

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mhurron
I've seen that Star Trek episode as well.

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lukas099
"that live on pure energy" \-- Don't we all?

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Amorymeltzer
I think it's fair to distinguish between organisms that process electrons and
organisms that process all manner of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to
produce carbon molecules that are used to generate molecules that induce
inhaled molecular oxygen to function as an electron acceptor and drive ATP
production.

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lukas099
Fair. But that's only one form of respiration we already knew about, you
anthropocentrist, you XD.

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gpvos
(2014)

New to me, though.

