Efficient long-range conduction in cable bacteria through nickel protein wires

Filamentous cable bacteria display long-range electron transport, generating electrical currents over centimeter distances through a highly ordered network of fibers embedded in their cell envelope. The conductivity of these periplasmic wires is exceptionally high for a biological material, but their chemical structure and underlying electron transport mechanism remain unresolved. Here, we combine high-resolution microscopy, spectroscopy, and chemical imaging on individual cable bacterium filaments to demonstrate that the periplasmic wires consist of a conductive protein core surrounded by an insulating protein shell layer. The core proteins contain a sulfur-ligated nickel cofactor, and conductivity decreases when nickel is oxidized or selectively removed. The involvement of nickel as the active metal in biological conduction is remarkable, and suggests a hitherto unknown form of electron transport that enables efficient conduction in centimeter-long protein structures.

Efficient long-range conduction in cable bacteria through nickel protein wires

Filamentous cable bacteria display unrivalled long-range electron transport, generating electrical currents over centimeter distances through a highly ordered network of fibers embedded in their cell envelope. The conductivity of these periplasmic wires is exceptionally high for a biological material, but their chemical structure and underlying electron transport mechanism remain unresolved. Here, we combine high-resolution microscopy, spectroscopy, and chemical imaging on individual cable bacterium filaments to demonstrate that the periplasmic wires consist of a conductive protein core surrounded by an insulating shell layer. The core proteins contain a sulfur-ligated nickel cofactor, and conductivity decreases when nickel is oxidized or selectively removed. The involvement of nickel as the active metal in biological conduction is remarkable, and suggests a hitherto unknown form of electron transport that enables efficient conduction in centimeter-long protein structures.

The structure of the blue whirl revealed

The blue whirl is a small, stable, spinning blue flame that evolved spontaneously in recent laboratory experiments while studying turbulent, sooty fire whirls. It burns a range of different liquid hydrocarbon fuels cleanly with no soot production, presenting a previously unknown potential way for low-emission combustion. Here, we use numerical simulations to present the flame and flow structure of the blue whirl. These simulations show that the blue whirl is composed of three different flames—a diffusion flame and premixed rich and lean flames—all of which meet in a fourth structure, a triple flame that appears as a whirling blue ring. The results also show that the flow structure emerges as the result of vortex breakdown, a fluid instability that occurs in swirling flows. These simulations are a critical step forward in understanding how to use this previously unknown form of clean combustion.

The Connection of the Existence of God with the Physics Phenomenon

One of the best pieces of evidence of physics phenomenon which could give us the description of the existence of God is Dark Energy. Dark Energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales, but until now, scientists have not proven exactly where the dark matter came from. One of the religions that beliefs in God are Islam. In Islam, God is a matter which we could feel but could not see.Keywords: Dark Energy, The God, Islam

‘Tones from Out of Nowhere’ and Other Non-sensedness: Re-membering the Synthetic Sound Films of Oskar Fischinger and Làszló Moholy-Nagy

Synthetic sound film, a genre in which sound is directly animated onto the soundtrack of a filmstrip, is an avant-garde practice which remains seldom theorized and too often neglected. Expanding on Thomas Y Levin’s canonical work on the genre, ‘“Tones from out of Nowhere”: Rudolph Pfenninger and the archaeology of synthetic sound’ (2003), this article argues that there is a fundamental divide amongst the artistic approaches to synthetic sound film between filmmakers seeking to create specific aural objects through a new form of visual representation, and filmmakers focused on the graphic object and its direct translation into a new/unknown form of aural representation. Concentrating on the latter group which begins with Oskar Fischinger and Làszló Moholy-Nagy, through a materialist framework, this article shows how their produced sounds re-member the objects from which they emerge and, as such, are bound to a material encounter defined by this sensorial return to objectness.