Researchers Unlock the Secrets to Bacteria's Super-Efficient Microscopic Motor Tech

It's no wonder we use electricity for everything nowadays. Evolution has proven time and again it's the go-to method for energy conversion, whether for signal processing, sensory reception, or motion. And now we find that even the tiny little tails on bacteria are controlled by electrical charges.

I can't possibly imagine what type of universe might exist without the myriad properties of electricity.

-IMP ;) :)

Yes ladies and gents. Notice the obligatory evolutionary spin!
"multi-millennia advantage that evolution enjoys over them"

Sophisticated motors that evolved through chance and selection to perfection without any engineering, forethought or construction plans.

It is a miracle! The parts evolved then just happened to shift into perfect order and suddenly an engine roared into life. Only took 10^164 trials er ... oops chance events + the incredible magic of selection!

All hail saint Darwin! PopSci worships you oh great one.

You people are pathetically in denial of the reality of statistical mechanics and the way laws of physics and chemistry DON'T produce prescribed information.

Start reading David Abel and Jack T. Trevors on life origins - lifeorigin dot info - for pete's sake or put a cork in it please!

Short circuit the bacteria!

The bacterial flagellar engine mystery being solved is a big deal, but it was inevitable that science would find the answer and somewhat predictable that in the end it was simply electricity working , which is not such a mystery.

Vigier your comments are full of contempt for science and reveal your ignorance to the many benefits our life in the 21 century have because of the facts of life discovered by Charles Darwin .

This is Popular Science and the readers of this website and respected magazine have no time for fundamentalist attitudes and will not listen to your creationist anti-science.

Steve 28,
I'm sure that Vigier will be happy to enlighten us as to which bearded-deity / life-originator gave the initial genetic instructions he's so hard over - since we're all so 'pathetically in denial.'

Is he going to start about irreducible complexity? In that case he's a little bit late, it's been debunked some time ago. I'm glad that evolution brings us forward and develops us as humans. And I am glad that scientists don't need to praise anyone, not even Darwin, so Vigier, you were wrong once again.

Vigier:
"You people are pathetically in denial of the reality of statistical mechanics and the way laws of physics and chemistry DON'T produce prescribed information."

A better part of the academic world (statistical/physics/chemistry/biology) have the past 150 years been in denial too. What knowledge do you have that they did not? Whatever it is, i think you should publish a paper about it and receive your well deserved Nobel price.

Yeah this evolution nonesense is just dumb. I mean, if there is a part of this creatyure which helps it survive so good, and is better than our motors, how could it be nature?

i never saw no nature build a motor before, so its gotta be some invisible superman that done it.

Come on people. I think it's time to move out of our bubbles of ignorance and learn what evolution REALLY means before we go saying it isn't true.

Best example:"My grandpa wasn't no monkey!"

People seem to ignore the fact that, even in Origins of Species, it was said that evolution takes a loooooooooooong time. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years for animals. For bacteria, it could take weeks if the conditions are suitable, hence our antibiotic-resistant superbugs. So please, take your head out of your ass and put it into a credible book. I'm talking to you, Vigier.

RANT OVER

I wholeheartedly agree with you Vigier. Mathematical probability suggests that these types of things could not have happened on their own by chance, but through design or direction.

I believe in science and agree there should be a logical scientific method by which we confirm our suspicions, but the truth is all the science in the world cannot PROVE evolution which is why it remains a theory. Until then, don't be so quick to attack someone else's beliefs just because it sounds silly to you.

You can call my beliefs theories as well, as I cannot prove that God exists... however just as we can see the gravitational effects of a black hole on nearby star systems without truly understanding how they work, I have seen the effects of a Creator and His footprints are everywhere.

@Matt2210 - sorry, your beliefs are not theory as a theory is something that can be tested. Unless my old science knowledge is completely out dated. Your beliefs are just beliefs. We can at least see the black hole and it's effects on planets and light and other properties. We're working on models of them to understand how they work. You can only say you've seen your Creator and "His footprints" but you can't show them to anyone else. Beliefs vs. theories right there.

We've seen evolution happen on limited scales and it can be tested. These "motors" didn't just BAM happen. It probably started with floating things that slowly slowly grew little fins and then developed other bits and the ones that did survive because of these things passed on the traits to the next generation. And then those developed other traits to help.

Now if only we could come up with a way to store/produce electricity as efficiently as we can use it. It is pretty ridiculous that almost all forms of locomotion today rely on technology which wastes 65-70% of the energy it uses.

Just because you can't test a theory with a microscope or a telescope doesn't mean it's not testable, just look at all the social sciences. There is plenty of hard scientific evidence to support creationism and to ignore that evidence just because you don't believe God could exist is just narrow and shortsided. 16th century Christians made that mistake when they insisted on the geocentric earth view instead of Galileo's heliocentric view, despite no evidence in the bible suggesting either way

First time I came to know that a flagellar engine that converts nearly 100 percent of its energy into rotational power.But really it is a great success.

I´ve been reading this page for a while and this is the first time I post, and maybe the last. First of all, english is not my native language so I apologize in advance for any mistakes done in my effort to express myself.

I just can't believe that now, in the 21st century, there are still some people willing to debate evolution. Evidence is everywere, and the further the science goes (like genetics)the more obvious evolution is. Since the discover of radiation, which debunked Lord Kelvin's guess about the age of earth, the biggest "but" in the Evolution theory have been put aside, but people in denial have always found new idiotic ways to fool themselves.
I know it's not easy to suddenly drop centuries of brainwash, and it's understandable why religious institutions are so eager to atack any REAL science that challenges their bussines model. And it's quite hillarious when people look for "god's certified" science, when historically they've been just wrong about everything.

So to Vigier and Matt2210:

"It is a miracle! The parts evolved then just happened to shift into perfect order and suddenly an engine roared into life. Only took 10^164 trials er ... oops chance events + the incredible magic of selection! "

Well Vigier, evolution didn't and do not happen by chance, happens by NATURAL SELECTION: little mutations during the dna replication of species (Darwin didn't have all the knowdeledge about genetics we have, but still figured out that there was some biological process involved) that represented and advantage and improved the chance of that liveform to reproduce, just passed to the next generation. The offsprings of that live form who inherit that mutation prospered, and they have some mutations themselfs, wich, when succesful allowed them to reproduce and past to the next generation and so on. This process takes a lot of time... but I'ts not like the world was just created 6,000 years ago right? (pun intended). Nature is a war, and only the fittest survive, it's not a matter of chance, it's just the most capable outlasting the less one.

"You people are pathetically in denial of the reality of statistical mechanics and the way laws of physics and chemistry DON'T produce prescribed information."

Ever hear about a little molecule called DNA? It's sole purpose it's to keep replicating itself (sometimes producing the above mutations in the process)and they DO carry information, Mendel knew that 150 years ago...

"Start reading David Abel and Jack T. Trevors on life origins - lifeorigin dot info - for pete's sake or put a cork in it please!"

Altough most science fans, and almoust all, if not all, REAL scientists do take take evolution as a proven fact, there are still plenty of "Scientists of Fortune" who make a living selling books plagued with psedo-science, saying what the people want to hear... they just make money of vulenrable people who have the need of a supernatural dad.

" ...but the truth is all the science in the world cannot PROVE evolution which is why it remains a theory. Until then, don't be so quick to attack someone else's beliefs just because it sounds silly to you."

Did you at least know what the word Theory means in the realm of science? Theory is not a guess, it's an explanation backed by scientific evidence, yes, if someone happens to find a human fossil carbon dated in the precambric, well, evolution will have a hughe challenge... but so far, all the evidence it's been in favor of evolution. And one more thing... go tell an astronomer that relativity is "just a theory".

" I have seen the effects of a Creator and His footprints are everywhere."

Yes I've seen the footprints of that fictional character called god too... crusades, inquisition, genocide, women humilliation, wars...

"despite no evidence in the bible suggesting either way"

The bible... a book written by men, modifying jewish books ( wich by the way are more a recopilation of their travels and folk stories than the word of any supernatural and neurotic deity) to make a guy "son fo god". Get real please... the Iliad and the Odyssey is faaar better written and older literature, but it is as silly as your so called holy book.

Excuse me for the length and the typos, but I cannot stand people who thinks their believes are science. This page is called Popular Science after all... not Popular Bu115hi+

@koussevitzky

I would just like to say thanks, for saving me the trouble of writing that.

Well now This is interesting. These little critters kept their mouth shut for so long, if they'd only told us their secrets before this whole oil business started to take over, we'd all now be driving them super tech electric vehicles today!

Electrics RULE! WHOOAA!

Interesting Koussevitzky: "So to Vigier and Matt2210:

"It is a miracle! The parts evolved then just happened to shift into perfect order and suddenly an engine roared into life. Only took 10^164 trials er ... oops chance events + the incredible magic of selection! "

Well Vigier, evolution didn't and do not happen by chance, happens by NATURAL SELECTION: little mutations during the dna replication of species (Darwin didn't have all the knowdeledge about genetics we have, but still figured out that there was some biological process involved) that represented and advantage and improved the chance of that liveform to reproduce, just passed to the next generation. The offsprings of that live form who inherit that mutation prospered, and they have some mutations themselfs, wich, when succesful allowed them to reproduce and past to the next generation and so on. This process takes a lot of time... but I'ts not like the world was just created 6,000 years ago right? (pun intended). Nature is a war, and only the fittest survive, it's not a matter of chance, it's just the most capable outlasting the less one.

"You people are pathetically in denial of the reality of statistical mechanics and the way laws of physics and chemistry DON'T produce prescribed information."

Ever hear about a little molecule called DNA? It's sole purpose it's to keep replicating itself (sometimes producing the above mutations in the process)and they DO carry information, Mendel knew that 150 years ago..."

but look at this:
"If viruses, prions, satellites, nanobes, nanobacteria (non-free-living sub-bacterial organisms) are excluded, the simplest free-living organism known is Mycoplasma genitalium, with a genome of only 580,000 base pairs and 482 protein-coding genes."(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-simplest-organism-known.htm) With just 200 objects and only 200 places to put them, the chances of one specific arrangement being created at random is 1 in 7.8865787 x 10^374. Even if one arrangement is tried every second for 4.5 billion years, or 1.420061669712 x 10^17 times, the chances of a specific arrangment occuring is 1 in 5.5536875 x 10^391. Still think evolution makes sense?

correction: Even if one arrangement is tried every second for 4.5 billion years, or 1.420061669712 x 10^17 times, the chances of a specific arrangment occuring is 1 in 5.5536875 x 10^357.

artro398: i think your math regarding the number of possible pairs (1 in 7.8865787 x 10^374) might be a little high. but let's just assume that the number you came up with is correct. your next supposition is based on an incorrect premise - namely that only one arrangement can be tried at any given time. the fact is there are billions (maybe trillions?) of these organisms alive at any given time. so the possibility exist to try a billion (or probably much more) different combinations in any given second. how does your math look then? ..not such an unreasonable probability now.

i applaud when people want to understand science and do the math themselves, but at some point, you should really do a gut check and ask yourself: "am i a phD? is this my field of study? am i a math genius? maybe people who have devoted their life to this might actually know the math behind this as well as the science behind the theory. maybe before they were published they had their papers reviewed by a panel of their peers (equally smart and informed people) and if they and the science community at large agree, maybe, just maybe, i might be wrong"

I am not a scientist but I am a motor engineer and I understand the complexities of modern motors and motor control design. This bacteria motor is totally awesome and amazing; a self-powered, variable speed electric machine that operates at near 100% efficiency and produces it's greatest amount of torque at stall? I'm sorry these do not happen by chance.

You ready for this?
I find this article interesting, but it lacks the details of the experiment. Oh wait, these 'scientists' created a 3D model in a computer! It doesn't make them an expert on 'unlocking the secrets' of the flagellum. I love science. To test, study, observe with repeatable experiments; one scientist makes a claim and it's the duty of all other scientists in the same field to jump on the opportunity to validate his/her claims. Making a computer model is not a real life experiment! A lot of scientists are turning to the computers for their answers. Here's the reason why: they can tweak the parameters to get the answer they need to give credit to Evolution!
Evolution has not helped in ANY field of science. You cannot test the past. Did you get that? I have to repeat that because most don't get it: You can NOT test the past. No science does this. Paleontologist claim all the time to 'dig up the past'... what they dig up is the condition of the fossil 'today' not yesterday. They cannot know the past. That's why your 'evolution' is just a religion.
Science used to be the search for the truth... where ever it may end up. The obvious conclusion is a creator! Who made math? Who made the laws of physics? Who was the law giver? Did they magically appear over TIME? Because that is usually the answer... Time is magic. It can do miracles. I say that TIME is the god of the evolutionist. If I put a frog into a blender... all the material of the frog are mixed up... there is no amount of TIME in the universe that would change that mess of goo back into a frog. Yet that's what evolutionist claim happened! It all started with the primordial soup. All garbage.
Anyway, a couple of you hit a button I guess. Try to think your own thoughts, don't believe everything 'the machine' tells you to think. Look at both sides of the arguements.