Beauty treatments that use clay aren’t new, but clay-based medicinal treatments are. And if Arizona State University’s (ASU) Lynda Williams and Shelley Haydel’s research pans out, then clay might one day become an antibacterial standard like penicillin. “We use maggots and leeches in hospitals, so why not clay?” Haydel asks. The ASU duo have just […]
Tag Archives | microbial
Forget Horsepower, Think Cow-Power
Findings presented at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society suggest that some of the micro-organisms found in cow waste could provide a reliable source of electricity. Using cow poo for energy generation isn’t a new idea. Some farmers already use the methane released by livestock waste to generate electrical power. But it requires […]
Microbial Fuel Cell Produces Hydrogen & Cleans Wastewater
Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, researchers have developed the a process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone. Dr. Bruce Logan, the Penn State professor of engineering and co-inventor of the MFC, […]
Mars-like Soils Can Harbor Life
Chile’s Atacama desert gets rain perhaps once a decade and scientists believed that the driest Atacama soils were sterile. But a team of Arizona scientists now report that microbial life lurks beneath the arid surface of this absolute desert. “We found life, we can culture it, and we can extract and look at its DNA,” […]
Poo Power From New Fuel Cell
A new fuel cell is being developed that can turn raw sewage into electrical power says an article in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The microbial fuel cell not only treats wastewater, but also provides a clean energy source with the potential for enormous financial savings, according to scientists at Pennsylvania State University. While […]