Recently, I read the article “Wired Bacteria Form Nature’s Power Grid: ‘We Have an Electric Planet’” in the New York Times, and was super impressed. I vaguely knew that reactions with electron transfer are widespread in nature (for example in photosynthesis), but I had no idea that bacteria could transport electric charge. This breaks down mental barriers in my mind. Previously, I put electronics like computer chips and solar cells in a different category than biological stuff. But if bacteria can get energy from minerals like a battery and transport charge along their cells, maybe bacteria don’t rely on technology that is fundamentally different than what we use in our cellphones.

If you want to dig into this research, which seems to have really taken off recently, here is a review article.