Bacteria with a Metal Diet Discovered in Dirty Glassware – Mirage News

Caltech microbiologists have discovered bacteria that feed on manganese and use the metal as their source of calories. Such microbes were predicted to exist over a century ago, but none had been found or described until now.
“These are the first bacteria found to use manganese as their source of fuel,” says Jared Leadbetter, professor of environmental microbiology at Caltech who, in collaboration with postdoctoral scholar Hang Yu, describes the findings in the July 16 issue of the journal Natur…

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