Living microbial cement supercapacitors with reactivatable energy storage
12 comments
·September 20, 2025lexicality
Always exciting to see people taking steps towards a wetware future, one of my favourite scifi horror tropes. Bring on the flesh!
bix6
Exciting for a proof of concept. Hope to see this further developed!
VladVladikoff
>Achieves 178.7 Wh/kg energy density and 8.3 kW/kg power density
Can someone explain this to me please. What is “energy” measuring here? How is it different from power?
billyjmc
Energy is how much work you can do. Power is how fast you can do it. When you express these in terms of densities, it’s how much energy a certain quantity of material can store, and how quickly that energy can be released from a certain quantity of material.
If you short out a AA battery, it will get warm for a little while. If you short out a 14500 Li-ion battery (which is the same size and comparable energy density), you might get a small explosion as it dumps its energy very quickly.
simpsond
W = Watt. h = hour. One kg supply one watt of power for 178.7 hours (without considering other factors). Power is how much energy can it supply at a moment. Up to 8.3 kW instantaneous.
lexicality
presumably energy is how much it can store and power is how fast you can get it out?
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thesebas
"Well that Sounds Like Slavery With Extra Steps"
pfdietz
Don't anthropomorphize microbes. They hate it when you do that.
PaulHoule
You've got plenty of bacteria working for you (and sometimes against you) in your gut. Microbe-enhanced cement is a significant research topic. And the most plausible route to a chemical "factory factory" that space colonists would need to make middle and top-of-pyramid chemicals is a synthetic biology platform where you could make bespoke bacteria and yeasts that could make just about anything for you.
Telemakhos
No more so than brewing beer with yeast or fermenting wine or growing crops.
> Our findings establish a new paradigm for bio-integrated, cement-based energy materials, paving the way for energy-autonomous infrastructure.
"You see what I did there? Paving. Get it?"
Right. Now unleash the academic peer review puns. They've given permission.