Scientists discover super-rare 'metal-eating' bacteria by accident during experiment
dailystar.co.ukCaltech (California Institute of Technology). But when he returned months later, he found the glass coated with a dark material.He said: "I thought, 'What is that?"I started to wonder if long-sought-after microbes might be responsible, so we systematically performed tests to figure that out."It emerged that the black coating was oxidised manganese generated by the newfound bacteria that had likely come from the tap water itself.
It is the first known bacteria to use metal as a source of calories, phys.org reports. Describing his findings in the publication, Nature, Prof Leadbetter said: "These are the first bacteria found to use manganese as their source of fuel."A wonderful aspect of microbes in nature is that they can metabolise seemingly.
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