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Updated: 12 of 2022 4:26 is
Irvine (California) [US]December 12 (ANI): Researchers at the University of California, Irvine are excited to see new ways microbes could help humans colonize the moon and Mars by studying the biochemical process by which cyanobacteria suck nutrients from rocks in the Chilean Atacama desert.
Researchers from UCI’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Johns Hopkins Department of Biology used high-resolution electron microscopy and advanced imaging spectroscopy techniques to gain a precise understanding of how microorganisms modify natural metals and synthetic nanoceramics. The key factor, say the scientists, is that the cyanobacteria produce biofilms that dissolve magnetic iron oxide particles within the gypsum rock, thereby converting the magnetite into oxidized hematite.
The team’s findings, which were the subject of research recently published in the Materials Today Bio journal, could pave the way for new bioextraction methods. The authors also say they see the result as a step towards using microorganisms in large-scale 3D printing or additive manufacturing at scales useful in civil engineering in extreme environments, such as on the Moon and Mars.
“Through biological processes that have evolved over millions of years, tiny miners excavate rock, extracting minerals needed for physiological functions, such as photosynthesis, that enable them to survive,” said corresponding author David Kisailus, professor of materials at UCI. . Science and engineering. “Could humans use a similar biochemical approach to obtain and manipulate minerals we think are valuable? This project has led us down this path.”
The Atacama Desert is one of the driest and most inhospitable places on Earth, but Chroococcidiopsis, a cyanobacterium found in gypsum samples collected there by the Johns Hopkins team, has evolved ‘the most amazing adaptations for survival in rocky habitats’, say the researchers. authors of .co. . Jocelyn DeRugero, professor of biology at the University of Baltimore.
“Some of these properties include the production of chlorophyll, which absorbs hot photons, and the ability to extract water and iron from surrounding minerals,” he added.
Using advanced electron microscopy and spectroscopic tools, the researchers found evidence of microbes in the chalk by observing how the minerals in it changed.
“Cyanobacterial cells enhance magnetite dissolution and iron dissolution through the production of abundant extracellular polymeric material, which leads to the dissolution and oxidation of magnetite into hematite,” said DeRugero. ferrous acid production [iron-binding compounds generated by bacteria and fungi] It was enhanced in the presence of magnetite nanoparticles, indicating their use by cyanobacteria to obtain iron from magnetite.
Kisailus said the way microorganisms process minerals in their abandoned homes got him thinking about our mining and manufacturing practices.
“When we mine minerals, we often end up using minerals that can be a challenge for precious metals mining,” he said. “Often we have to subject these materials to extreme processes to turn them into something of value. This practice can be both financially and environmentally damaging.
Kisailus said he is now considering a biochemical approach using natural or synthetic isotopes of ferrous iron, enzymes and other secretions to process minerals where only large mechanical crushing machines currently operate. And taking the leap from here, he says there may also be ways to create microorganisms using similar biochemical capabilities to produce engineered materials on demand in inappropriate places.
“I call it ‘moon formation’ rather than terraforming,” Kiselos said. “If you want to build something on the moon, instead of it costing people, we can have a robotic system 3D print support and then reconfigure the microbe. be something of value. This can be done without endangering human life.”
He adds that humans don’t always need to use Edison’s approach to learning how to do things.
“This is an important topic of biomimetic materials and nanostructures laboratories. Why try to reinvent the wheel when nature has been perfecting it over hundreds of millions of years? Kiss said. “We just have to extract the secrets and blueprints of what nature is doing and apply or adapt them to what we need.” Favorite
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