Source: Good News Network
A determined young student has made an exciting new discovery after he embarked on a strenuous 7-mile walk into the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park last August.
Unlike thousands of tourists who trek to admire the park’s iconic geysers and hot springs every year, Abdelrhman Mohamed was traveling with a team of scientists to hunt for life within them.
After several hours of hiking through scenic, isolated paths in the Heart Lake Geyser Basin area, the team found four pristine pools of hot water. They carefully left a few electrodes inserted into the edge of the water, hoping to coax little-known creatures out of hiding – bacteria that can eat and breathe electricity.
After 32 days, the team returned to the hot springs to collect the submerged electrodes. Working under the supervision of his fellow researchers, Mohamed analyzed the electrodes and found that they had succeeded in capturing their prey: heat-loving bacteria that “breathe” electricity through the solid carbon surface of the electrodes.
The Washington State University team, in collaboration with colleagues from Montana State University, published their research detailing the multiple bacterial communities they found in the Journal of Power Sources.
“This was the first time such bacteria were collected in situ in an extreme environment like an alkaline hot spring,” said Mohamed,…
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