Microbes are masters of survival, evolving ingenious strategies to capture energy from their surroundings. For decades, scientists believed that only a handful of bacteria used specialized molecular “circuits” to shuttle electrons outside their cells—a process known as extracellular electron transfer (EET). This mechanism is critical for cycling carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and metals in nature, and it underpins applications ranging from wastewater treatment to bioenergy and bioelectronics materials.
Bacteria reveal hidden powers of electricity transfer
