When materials scientists and developers discovered the neat, multi-functional, elegantly designed biological structure of protein "nanotubes" in eukaryote cells they eagerly 'borrowed' the designs - thought to arise spontaneously through the binding affinities of the state-switching proteins involved - to construct similar artificial ['artifactual'] structures of carbon atoms (occasionally doped with gold or other atoms) for use in development of future generations of electronic devices and medical treatment delivery systems.

Then, much to the surprise of scientists generally, it was discovered that life can fabricate nanotubes of particular elemental form too - as 'artifacts' in their environment, not as pieces-parts of themselves. The work appears in the December 7 issue of PNAS and was partially funded by the Center for Nanoscale Innovation for Defense…

Nanotube-producing Bacteria Show Manufacturing Promise:

The photoactive arsenic-sulfide nanotubes produced by the bacteria behave as metals with electrical and photoconductive properties. The researchers report that these properties may also provide novel functionality for the next generation of semiconductors in nano- and opto-electronic devices.

In a process that is not yet fully understood, the Shewanella bacterium secretes polysacarides that seem to produce the template for the arsenic sulfide nanotubes, Myung explained. The practical significance of this technique would be much greater if a bacterial species were identified that could produce nanotubes of cadmium sulfide or other superior semiconductor materials, he added.

Myung adds that he suspects each species of Shewanella (a prokaryotic bacteria that does sport a cytoskeleton) may have the ability to produce nanotubes with different properties. Or maybe such specialized manufacturing slaves could be engineered to work with carbon and gold. Perhaps they could be trained, since they're alive and all…

Thought this was an interesting report about how science, mimicking organic designs, can occasionally be surprised by the discovery that life already knows how to fabricate the structures those scientists desire. Life not just as a provider of design templates for useful structures, but also as the designing agent for artifactual structures.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Biology, Computer Science, Nanotechnology, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The trackback link is: http://telicthoughts.com/lifes-designs-lifes-agency/trackback/