Bacteria "breathe rocks" may be the basis for developing quantum computing

Tariq Kabil

Researchers at the University of Southern California School of Arts and Sciences in Dornsiff and the Weizmann Institute of Science found that protein nanoparticles "wiring" that link a bacterial cell to a solid surface tend to transfer electrons with a specific rotation.

They said that this ability to choose the quantum circulation of the electron may have implications for the use of bacteria in biotechnology and in the increasing efforts to create bacteria-based energy cells, as well as future electronic technologies.

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society published on December 11, 2019.

Bacteria breathing rocks
While most organisms use oxygen to obtain energy, there are electrical bacteria that eat and breathe rocks and metal particles such as manganese, lead, iron, and others, such as Shewanella oneidensis .

These bacteria were first discovered and isolated in Lake Oneida, New York in 1988, and are attached to the surface of rocks containing minerals.

Bacteria release long strings called nanowires that are used to communicate directly with the metal, and transfer electrons into metal molecules, causing an electric current to flow, which keeps them alive. In terms of metabolism, they “breathe” minerals or electrodes.

Under the supervision of a professor of physics, astronomy and chemistry at the University of Southern California, Dr. Muhammad al-Najjar, and Ron Numan of the Weizmann Institute, researchers studied bacteria that can use solid surfaces in the same way that animals use oxygen to breathe.

Instead of dumping the electrons generated during the metabolism process to the inhaled oxygen molecules, the bacteria send the electrons to specialized proteins that reach an outer surface.

"Unlike most organisms that are able to use oxygen as an electron receiver, these bacteria transfer electrons to a solid metal, or - as they do in our laboratory - to extracellular electrodes," said Sahand Barbadian, a senior researcher at the University of Southern California.

To reach the outer surface, the electrons are transported through the different protein molecules that form electrical channels. These proteins contain magnetic fields that can prefer a particular rotation during the transfer of electrons.

Spindle winding
Spin spin or the angular motion amount of electrons is a property that expresses the rotation of the elementary particle around itself, and a mechanical phenomenon represents an original quantum.

The spin spin of an electron can be approximated to analogy by comparing it to the rotation of the Earth around itself, in addition to its rotation around the sun. Likewise, the electron wraps around itself and rotates at the same time in an orbit around the nucleus.

The spin of the electron is coupled with a magnetic moment, which is the origin of the phenomenon of magnetic matter. Magnetic fields can affect the direction of a quantum electron's rotation, its core from top to bottom, and vice versa. This does not require much, and even a bacterial cell can do this.

Alceralism
"Scientists have found that these magnetic fields are influenced by the properties of proteins called kerala," Barbadian says.

Many molecules - especially biological molecules - appear in two versions, each with a mirror image of the other, and scientists call this the "kerial" or "mirror asymmetry".

According to the researchers, the protein kerala affects the polarity of the magnetic fields that the electrons suffer from as they travel through the protein to reach outside the bacteria that breathe in the rocks.

"This study is the first to confirm that the electrically conducting proteins in these cells choose the rotation of electrons," Al-Najjar says.

Spin in use
Carpenter and his colleagues have studied these bacteria that "breathe in rocks", which may one day be used in the production of sustainable energy for years, and says that discovering that the electrons conducting electrons in these bacteria can choose a specific electronic spin that depends on kerala, may be useful in developing certain electronic devices They are called spin electronics.

Rotating electronics not only use the charge of electrons, they also use their quantum rotation, and they may be particularly useful in quantum computing.

The study of rotational electronics differs from the old study of magnetic electronics, in that the electron's spin and the associated magnetic moment are studied, in addition to the basic electron charge, and the rotation control by both magnetic and electric fields.

"There is ongoing research on materials that could serve as a basis for new rotating electronics technologies," Al-Najjar said. "Our work shows that bacterial cytochrome (a class of proteins) may be an interesting candidate for rotational electronics."

Understanding how proteins affect the quantum circulation of electrons can help scientists understand how magnetic fields affect some biological processes.