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Bacteria Eats Chocolate And Excretes Electricity

newscientisttech.com — University of Birmingham microbiologists have found a bacterium that excretes electricity-generating hydrogen when fed sugar, and have made electricity from waste chocolate headed for the landfill.

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  • Marco, on 10/12/2007, -113/+18i excrete po if u wkno it i amean!
    • BloodJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -109/+14I love you, Marco.
    • TheCount, on 10/12/2007, -26/+38I'm blocking both of you, those have to be the two most idotic comments I've ever seen on digg. Grow up.
    • BloodJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -42/+14@TheCount: that's a good call.
    • haruki, on 10/12/2007, -53/+9To 'the Count': Grow down.
    • quakefiend, on 10/12/2007, -38/+19again I say, digg users have the sense of humor of a cinderblock. I laughed, and that's worth more to me than some snotty ass opinionated comment.
    • scruffmaster, on 10/12/2007, -21/+15My roommate eats beans and excretes pure methane.
    • fiji5555, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10@Quackerfiend
      again I say, digg users have the sense of humor of a cinderblock. I laughed, and that's worth more to me than some snotty ass opinionated comment.

      I agree.....some people act like they are constipated in the humor department
  • RyomaNagare, on 10/12/2007, -30/+2Is this more efficient than making electricty from big dumpers?

    you do know all ebergy is the same
  • LoudOrangeCat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Buy stock in Hershey's NOW!
    • thegreatsam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Why would there even be a need for "extra" chocolate to go to a landfill? I understand that there might be scraps left over from the molding process, but can't they just be melted back down and used in more product? Am I missing something?
    • RetroRufio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I believe it has to do with the refining of chocolate, the "extra" is what is leftover after the chocolate has been purified.
    • diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4they should just use a chocolate river for the purification process.
    • Gaidorade, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1-to the tune of oompa loompas- I don't like the look of this!
  • kbdrand, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Ok, this story has got to be totally bogus. I mean who would send Chocolate to a landfill??? It's crazy I tell you!!!!
  • jabab, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Waste...chocolate...? Why does that exist? I would eat it.
    • Bloc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7University of Birmingham is located less than 30 minutes from Cadbury's chocolate factory. One of the original chocolate companies.
    • aguita, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I believe you can thank the FDA and other silly rules for that. You'd be amazed at the amount of viable food that is just thrown out due to stupid rules.
  • greyrat, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8Nooooooo!!! Get away from my chocolate! I'll just sit here in the dark -- with my chocolate...
  • unangst, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8This headline doesn't even need a humorous comment...
  • twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+36Funny, I eat Mexican food and excrete FIRE!
    • scruffmaster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Ah now if we could only extract that gene that makes you do that...
  • jeshjohn, on 10/12/2007, -15/+6hmmm female bacteria.
  • zaren, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3As long as they're using that crappy bargain-basement Palmer's chocolate, I'm cool with this.

    But if them bugs come after my Hershey's, or my Cadbury, or my Dove... there's gonna be some hurtin' goin' on.
    • omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Go to Cost Plus and find out what real chocolate is! You're still eating bargain basement!

      No seriously, don't get offended....just go and try. You'll thank me! Try some Bahlsen, Ritter Sport, and the rest.
  • tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I take it those bacterium are clinically obese by now? And excreting electricity? That must be painful.
  • xutopia, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Waste chocolate? How can chocolate be wasted like this???
  • faithlessphil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I've always suspected chocolate would save the world someday. I just didn't know how. Chocolate energy is the future!
    • EssPii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Too bad it probably takes more energy to make the chocolate than the bacteria produces.
    • Leonaken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Well, consider that not all chocolate is produced to the quality that chocolate factories look for, and do end up heading to a landfill. Yes, it takes a lot of energy to create chocolate, or any other sugar byproduct. But they're using that energy whether or not someone decides to make it standard to convert it to generator stored electricity. Saves you space in the landfill AND it puts otherwise useless waste to use.

      Of course, we see hundreds, if not thousands, of new ways to generate energy and power each year, and none are put to use in public domain. The chances of THIS method making it to the streets is as good as any other experimental method: slim.
  • lostboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4so now they are stuck in our matrix? how's that fair, poor bacterium
  • alecks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Now we can finally justify a Wonka power plant.... all we need now is lumpas...
  • SysErr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16My god, they have it so wrong... why can't it eat electricity and generate chocolate???
    • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I was thinking the same thing. If only the process was reversible.
    • EssPii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15It is... it is called a "Chocolate Manufacturing Plant"
    • griz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmmm...
      Consume Electricity, get chocolate
      Consume chocolate, get electricity
      Lets pump billions into this concept until we can get just a fraction above that break even point.
      Then.....(Insert evil take over the world sounds such as Muahahahahahaha)

      We will have endless supplies of chocolate!!!!
    • slipsec, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2And while we are at it, let's build a gigantic global-cooling machine that runs on fossil fuels and gives off CFCs.
    • Mac2492, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why don't we just make a replicator?
  • omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Oh how I'm trying not to make a joke about an ex...
  • boredzo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Sweet.

    (Pun intended.)
  • tripm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12See, Dr. Emmett Brown was right!
    • Bandito, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I'll give you a digg for the obscure "Back to the Future" reference

    • heinousjay, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8obscure? I don't think that word means what you think it means.
    • apetrie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Inconceivable!
    • Exbzurg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0O RLY?
  • omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5...upon closer inspection, it turns out that the bacteria are, in fact, Nano Loompas.
  • rooke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Who else read the article and thought in a year or two with this they'll have Mr. Fusion Beta units?


    Edit: Aparently tripm
  • Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I went to this Uni. It was great back then. I think they also made some incredibly small motor that was powered by a drop of water.
  • nessup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14That's why they want to build a Chocolate New Orleans!
    • Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2HAHAHAHA!
    • JMartin13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thats the second funniest thing I've read today. The first was a song about the internet not being free.
  • MyKill0310, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Did anyone even read the article? It states "The bacteria consumed the sugar and produced hydrogen, which they make with the enzyme hydrogenase, and organic acids. The researchers then used this hydrogen to power a fuel cell, which generated enough electricity to drive a small fan..." Although this title grabs your attention, it is inaccurate.
    • itsmekirby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I believe the title was a simplification. The blurb still had the facts. I dugg it.
  • ninjapirate350, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"In other news, scientists are working on a cure for bacterial diabetes!"
  • adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2**And as soon as the chocolate eatting parasites were made public, it was reported that Count Chocula went in to deep hidding. All his spokesman would say is "at this time the count feels that his safety is in jepordy if these things get out and has take actions incase that scenereo plays out. He does plan at some point in time, making a statement himself. Thank you."***
  • harpastum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"The team fed Escherichia coli bacteria diluted caramel and nougat waste."
    That's E. Coli for those following along at home. What a cool use for a bacterium that is almost exclusively known for food poisoning.
    • techie4life, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Few people realize that some forms of E.coli are found naturally in our stomachs & help digest food.....
  • bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5excretes hydrogen not electricity.
  • XStatic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Why "Bacteria Eats Chocolate And Excretes Electricity" ???

    How about:
    "Bacteria that converts Sugar to Hydrogen used to power fuel cells in Chocolate Factory"
    • madrona, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1--Meant this as reply to powercow immediately below--

      "within 15 degrees is where [cocoa] grows"

      So one positive side to global warming is that in a few years I'll be able to grow cocoa in my back yard here in Utah. Milk the cow, press some sugar cane, and I'm set.
    • joelito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2[quote=XStatic]
      How about:
      "Bacteria that converts Sugar to Hydrogen used to power fuel cells in Chocolate Factory"
      [/quote]

      That's the mother of the long and redundant titles
  • PowerCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2great reason to take over the equator.. as within 15 degrees is where chocolate grows.
    But it would be a hard fight between me and the car for my chocolate.. and i really wouldnt like to see chocolate prices rise..
    Now if they could make fuel from white chocolate i am all in, that stuff is gross.
    • psyanyde, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Chocolate doesn't grow, it is a manufactured product. Cocoa grows, but the bacteria don't eat cocoa; they eat sugar. It just happens to be that the source of the sugar in this experiment was chocolate.

      Most of you are looking at this from the wrong angle, but hey, it creates an opportunity for chocolate humor, so ***** SCIENCE.
    • ingenium21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Psynyde, you're one of those morons that thinks creationism is a real science aren't you?

      this could the beginning of actual great biochemical advances in hydrogen transfer. All that ***** you saw in back to the future part II, where the Doc was powering his car off of trash could become possible now that we have discovered this. Why? Because all biomatter is made up of sugars. Cellulose-,C6H10O5, Glucose, C6H1206, and what does that have to do with these E. coli? Well if they crave sugars, with certain types of mutagenesis (site directed, multi-site directed, site specific) they can be made to crave different and multiple types of sugars, as well as even produce more electricity. This is very very good research.
    • kaviare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, Psynyde does have a point. Did you also see the article a little further on about how Americans rely on foriegn scientists for their brain power? I heard an American scientist interviewed the other day, and he was saying that something like 40% of Americans not only don't know where milk comes from, they don't know where MEAT comes from. And if you tell them, they feel disgusted. I, personally, would love to have a chocolate plant, but it just aint gonna happen. Unless people realise how much effort, energy and resources go into the products they consume, how can we expect not to have a detrimental effect on the environment?

      However, I'm all for the chocolate jokes...
  • dime, on 10/12/2007, -12/+0
    It doesn't suprise me that bacteria can eat chocolate and excrete electricity...


    I mean, when I eat Mexican I often ***** fire.


  • Matteos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Is there nothing chocolate can't do?
  • linkerjpatrick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think society would be better served if the masses were given the chocolate to eat as opposed to the bacteria.
  • raid517, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I had an Indian curry a few nights ago - and I've been crapping lightening bolts ever since....
  • poipoipoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Bacteria Eats Chocolate And Excretes Electricity"

    So does my two-year-old!
  • matthewaaron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Is chocolate cheaper that gas?
  • headswine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Bad title. It excretes fuel, just as cows excrete methane gas. But ti is interesting.
  • lamuella, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1wait, this is in Birmingham?

    Then the chocolate they're eating is cadbury's. THere are far better uses for cadbury's chocolate. It could be sent to me.

    I really miss English chocolate.
  • edenlover, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Willy Wonka suing Birmingham in 3...2...1...
    • lamuella, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0actually, edenlover, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is based on Roald Dahl's experiences "testing" new kinds of chocolate for Cadbury's when he was at school, so they were there first.
  • patcarling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm not taking crap from no bacteria :)
  • rhettnyedotorg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is it a net gain in electricity before it's all said and done? is this a perpetual motion machine or just another hype for the H?
    • joelito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Disclaimer, My physics are a bit rusty and i'm translating my toughts from spanish:

      But if I understand transfers of energy correctly, then the expected behaviour is to invest more energy than you are gaining in any of these transfers. However, the point is to be able to reuse energy that would otherwise be wasted in a more efficient way. For this case we have a case where; this chocolate was going to be thrown away, these bacteria were eating the chocolate and producing emmisions that would have been lost in the atmosphere and finally, some scientist figure out a way to take these emmisions and reuse them to produce energy that we could use instead of completely loosing it.
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0well i eat pus*y and excrete nothing >DOH< does that mean i m useless
  • dmsteg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I could have saved these scientist guys a lot of time and resources.
    Just give my 2 and a half year old daughter some chocolate or any other sugar based food substance and put her on a stationary tricycle hooked up to a generator and you'll do more than power a small, fan I'll tell ya that much.
  • sock2828, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cool pretty soon i will be able to shove a chocolate in my laptop when i need a battery charge
  •  

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