Derek Lovley and Daniel Bond, of the University of Massachusetts, have made a battery from microbe-rich sediment from the ocean floor, producing a new environmentally friendly and potentially inexhaustible source of power?mud. Enough ?mud power? was obtained in the experiment to operate a pocket calculator.

The microbes responsible for the mud power are called Geobacteraceae. They oxidize the organic matter in mud to gain energy, producing excess electrons which can be used to make electrical current.
read more