MIT’s Belcher uses engineered virus to split water
Angela Belcher and team at MIT have tweaked a bacterial virus to serve as a scaffolding to:
attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
Belcher says that
within two years she expects to have a prototype device that can carry out the whole process of splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen, using a self-sustaining and durable system.
This is just a very early taste of what we can expect someday from more extensively designed molecular machine systems. —Chris Peterson
May 7th, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Fuel for Cars, Energy for Homes,
With the advent of nano-extraction techniques, the extraction of
hydrogen from sea water for the use of power generation and fueling
of cars is a step closer. NGEN’s proposed conversion of coal and gas
fired power stations to hydrogen and the supply of hydrogen for cars
will revolutionise the worlds energy sector.
May 11th, 2010 at 12:10 PM
Now for your next trick Angela, please arrange for your pet bacteria to eat raw sewage.
Nice work!
May 17th, 2010 at 12:21 AM
wow.. interesting.. let’s see where to next
May 18th, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Wow..look so awesome…I don’t like science but, I love reading about it and see experiments..
June 9th, 2010 at 12:43 PM
Interesting post, but I think two years is way too less for such a thing.
July 25th, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Progresses in nanotechnologies are very fast but i think it will take more than two years to reach the goal
August 16th, 2010 at 3:01 AM
The ability to produce clean fresh water as a leading by-product of the nanoextraction of hydrogen from sea water via reverse engineering and associated practices is a goal of many involved in this exciting
field of science. The confluence of providing energy and water for our growing cities and towns available to us at the initial engineering of our nanoextraction facilities
September 16th, 2010 at 10:12 AM
This sounds great! Being able to split water into the two workable elements if essential for improved fuel development. This technology may help us get close to that refueling station on the moon! When this is available for commercial use we would like offer this kind of technology for Government agencies.
Joshua Leach
Dodworld.com
Dod Consulting
September 17th, 2010 at 9:49 PM
[...] folks doing this research: the Foresight Institute » MIT’s Belcher uses engineered virus to split water need to go and read Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s [...]