Instead of hauling hay, these animals are “hauling” gold to make batteries.

Newscientist.com reports that these viruses have been genetically modified to behave in a way that produces a working battery anode (the negatively charged part of the battery). The viruses have molecules on their outer body that chelate (Greek for “hook”) to electrically conductive materials such as gold.

The viruses also are genetically motivated to attach head to tail to others of their same species. The result is a microscopic electrode, mere nanometers thick.

Dr. Angela Belcher, the MIT biomechanical engineer in charge of the research, said,

“…(soon) we’ll be able to form batteries by simply pouring all the ingredients together and letting them self-assemble… we can make them at room temperature in very safe conditions, instead of the high temperatures and dangers usually associated with battery production.”

Dr. Belcher and her colleagues used automated software modeling and testing systems to examine billions of viruses. Their goal was to find viruses whose outer shells had a strong affinity for gold.

They also needed cobalt to make a proper anode. Here, they actually engineered the genetic code in the viruses, using coding very similar to that used by other microbes to attract calcium.

A nanoscale battery has many exciting uses, including the potential for powering implantable medical devices. Such medical devices could in the future be injected into the bloodstream. They could go right to the source of the problem and fix it without need for surgery.

While the nanoscale is potentially very important, we also have some important needs at larger scales of construction. Already, Dr. Belcher’s team has been able to get these viruses to grow on a sheet, thereby producing larger anodes approximately a yard long.

They believe such systems may be used to create self-assembling solar cells. One of the major considerations in Natick making solar power more affordable and widely used is the cost of construction and their fragility.

The scientists believe that simple modifications should enable creation of viruses that produce a positively charged battery electrode (AKA cathode).

Dr. Trevor Douglas, a specialist in nano-chemistry at Montana State University, said, “They took this from the nanoscale to the macroscopic, which could mean batteries of every shape and size… It’s not hard to imagine these being produced on a factory-scale.”

If Belcher’s process makes construction of large sheets of solar cells not much more expensive than paper, it will be possible to simply roll them out, use them for a while, and then replace them.

On the other hand, although the scientists don’t claim this, it occurs to me that it might be possible to attach small wells of the conductive materials in solution to the sheets of solar cells, and train viruses to replace any damaged areas by growing over them much like living skin.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this latest invention from the — pardon the pun — fertile mind of Dr. Belcher (who is on many short lists for a Nobel Prize) will soon lead to commercial applications.  We’ll be watching for early-stage companies entrusted with this powerful technology.

Those should offer some exciting investment opportunities. Meanwhile, computer modeling shows us some more grim news about avian flu…

According to Livescience, a computer model has now demonstrated that bird flu could sweep across the United States in 90 days.

Starting with just 10 infected people in Los Angeles, the pandemic would be predicted to quickly spread across the United States. While the current virus of concern, H5N1, is not yet easily transmissible between humans, I recently reported here how one prominent researcher believes it may require just two genetic mutations.

Computer models can give us better understandings of how things may unfold in the real world. This one is no exception.

For instance, manufacturing and stockpiling large quantities of just a modestly effective vaccine seems preferable to using smaller quantities of a more highly effective vaccine.

Restrictions on human interaction apparently will be sufficient to stop the plague.  Nevertheless, quarantines and travel restrictions definitely helped in the simulation.

The computer model “created” 281 million synthetic people who traveled locally and over distances in normal ways.

It also included an assumption that most researchers consider realistic, albeit troubling: In the scenario, one-third of infected people were “typhoid Marys” capable of infecting others but themselves unaffected by the disease.

What do both of these have in common?  In both cases, software modeling was used to address vast problems beyond the ken of ordinary human understanding.

Dr. Belcher is probably one of the most brilliant people in the planet.  Nevertheless, even her formidable abilities would be at a loss to analyze more than a billion virus variations looking for a needle in a haystack.

Likewise, creating a realistic model of the entire US population that includes multiple variables such as rate of infection, speed of disease progression, required level of exposure, travel patterns and dozens of other factors would be beyond the mind of even Einstein.

Computers are not yet replacing us, but they are enabling us to do creative work at levels far beyond anything before possible. By harnessing the analytical powers of computers to the physical properties of microorganisms, wonders that seem magical will soon unfold.

Companies such as our Transformational Technologies Portfolio holdings Symyx (SMMX: Nasdaq) and Accelrys (ACCL: Nasdaq) are leading the charge in providing the analytical power necessary to supplement the human brain for such phenomenal calculations. 

Their tools let great scientists such as Dr. Belcher use their uniquely human imaginations to pose questions as “what if…,” then the automatic systems grind away until the conclusions are evident. 

To your profitable future,

Jonathan Kolber
April 12, 2006

The Domestication of Viruses was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.