Chapter 1143 Prototype of Future Biological Engine
Bacterial flagella can also be called bacterial flagellar filaments.
It is part of the bacterial drive system. The drive system consists of a motor base, a rotation motor and a bacterial flagellum. This set can also be called a bacterial flagellar motor. The main material is only protein.
The flagellar motor is like a gear, which quickly transfers the mechanical energy converted by the proton pump to the flagellar filament without any loss, and then the flagellar filament rotates rapidly, pushing the bacteria forward.
This kind of transmission efficiency is very high, allowing bacteria to run dozens of times their own depth in less than a second. Not only is the forward speed fast, but the turning speed is also very fast, and it is very flexible.
The diameter is generally forty-five nanometers and the length is several micrometers. Now the bacterial flagellar motors observed by Qu Ping have far exceeded this scale, and there are still many of them. This means that this is not an accidental mutation, but the formation of a stable new generation of newer ones.
Larger bacteria have larger, faster flagellar motors.
Under natural conditions, it is not excluded that there are hundreds of thousands of revolutions per minute, and it may not be discovered by humans. The flagellum speed of E. coli is similar to tens of thousands of revolutions per minute. But this is already the limit, not to mention the volume is far from enough.
Mutated bacteria now discovered.
The largest known bacterium in the world is Thiolobicus pallidum in Namibia. It was discovered by humans in the seabed sediments of the Namibia Sea and can be seen with the naked eye.
Ordinary bacteria are at the level of 5 to 5 microns, Sulfothococcus is 1 to 3 millimeters, and the largest one is even 75 millimeters. The bacteria discovered by Qu Ping now easily exceed 2 centimeters.
The diameter is hundreds of times that of ordinary bacteria, and the volume is already millions of times.
What is this concept? The difference between a newborn mouse and a blue whale is not that big. Maybe it is the difference between a mouse and Mount Everest.
Such sulfide bacteria do not grow in an oxygen environment, but poisonous hydrogen sulfide is hidden in the sediment. The nitrate in the cells oxidizes and decomposes the sulfide to obtain energy. In other words, carbon-based organisms grow in the absence of oxygen.
It is only possible to grow so big in an oxygen-deprived environment.
The laboratory of Changtian Technology is a normal environment. This environment is designed to fit the actual production conditions, so that the produced things can enter the production process under ordinary conditions.
If a production theory requires too harsh conditions, it will be thrown into the trash can.
Otherwise, it can only work in the laboratory, and finally it has to be improved to a normal environment to be considered successful. Therefore, no one understands how such large bacteria came from.
Since you don’t know, then do experiments to investigate. First do qualitative experiments to find out the environmental conditions under which new bacteria appear. This is not difficult. As long as you carefully investigate the laboratory data, you can get the conditions of the environment and nutrient solution.
Then conduct a detailed analysis of the substances in the petri dish to obtain the pH, elemental composition and ratio.
The next step is to do subtraction and transplant the new bacteria from the original petri dish to the new petri dish to see if the new bacteria can be cultivated continuously and stably.
After two hours, the bacteria took shape. This speed is also surprising. This is equivalent to the blue whale taking 40 to 50 years to grow to a fully mature body, which is 30 meters long and weighs 180 tons.
Now here comes a little blue whale, which has grown to several times the size of a fully mature body in fifteen years. It grows faster and has a higher limit.
But at present, it is difficult to break through the upper limit. The new bacteria cultured in new petri dishes are actually smaller than the original ones.
This means that there are some things in the original petri dish that the new petri dish does not have, and this kind of thing should be produced by the interaction between different bacterial colonies, and is very effective for the growth of bacteria.
Then, continue subtraction to find the interacting bacterial groups.
According to Qu Ping's observation and analysis, such new cells have broken away from the original colony characteristics, which means that they are hybrid new cells.
The first task is to first find out the types of bacteria involved in the hybridization, to see whether it is a mixture of two countries or three countries, and then restore it.
This process is not easy to handle. The DNA of these bacteria is relatively close and they are close relatives. Some of them have independent coexistence and mutually beneficial relationships. It is really messy like a game of Go. Every change is possible.
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This is a job that requires considerable patience and is time-consuming and energy-consuming.
Many people don't understand the meaning of this. They think that since we have high-quality varieties, shouldn't it be enough to let them continue to reproduce on their own? Why do we need to look backwards for the source?
This is because we need to find the reasons for the emergence of new species, trace their origins, and find the original DNA.
By doing this, even if one day these new varieties cannot reproduce, they can still start from the original genes and cultivate this variety.
Gene richness is very important, which means that in addition to existing new varieties, newer and more powerful new varieties can be cultivated.
Take rice as an example. Why would the God of Agriculture look for some primitive wild rice?
That is to find original and abundant genes and select them from scratch.
Human beings have discovered that no matter which species they are, after continuous reproduction and development, the genetic differences continue to shrink, even for humans. Some experts have determined that if reproduction continues like this, humans will eventually become extinct.
There used to be many human races, but with the exchange of humans, everyone's genes continued to get closer.
Ahem, I'm going too far. Anyway, increasing the types of genes and fixing them is very important for later selection and cultivation. To know this, you also need to know why.
Through genetic testing and backward reasoning, Qu Ping's team identified five bacterial colonies and finally found three bacterial colonies involved in the mutation. This is a very important result, which means that it can be cultured accurately without having to do anything in the later culture.
Stacking them in petri dishes is such a waste of materials.
When the new bacteria were stably cultured again, Qu Ping breathed a sigh of relief. What she was most afraid of was that the cultured bacteria were either not big enough or the flagellar speed was not high enough. Now that both are alive, the basic requirements are met.
The subsequent details will be dealt with slowly.
"Director, it's time to name it." The subordinate reminded in a low voice. It was inconvenient to call it by a code name for so long.
Qu Ping thought for a while and quickly named the bacteria "Cyclone Bacteria".
The cyclone bacteria have been cultured, and there is no shortage of follow-up observations. The most important thing is to understand the working principle and working limits.
Qu Ping discovered that this bacterium lives on the solution state or the energy blocks in the solution. When it takes a bite, it quickly converts the energy, transmitting it from the internal rotor to the flagellum, which then drives the bacterium to move quickly and converts energy.
Almost order.
This is an extremely remarkable discovery, which means that once this thing reaches a certain number, larger equipment can be moved quickly. The best thing is that there is no waste of energy at all. What is this? This is the biological engine
Precondition!
Qu Ping even imagined that if the cyclone bacteria were continued to grow infinitely and then placed on the ship, how many knots would the ship's speed be?
If cyclone bacteria are used to stir the water flow, and the water flow drives the aircraft turbofan, what speed can the aircraft reach?
What about cars? What about tanks? All human means of transportation will be replaced by hot-working engines.
With the rise of energy blocks, many cars have begun to abandon gasoline and choose to use energy blocks directly or travel by tram, but this involves an energy conversion ratio issue.
In the past, it was considered very powerful if the calorific value of a car engine could reach 40%, and it was not stable. This was laboratory data, not actual measured data. Even the actual measured data was obtained under good environmental conditions.
Conclusion, it cannot represent the complex and changeable driving environment.
This kind of energy utilization rate is too high. You don’t have to worry about pollution, but you also have to consider the issue of utilization efficiency. If the cyclone bacteria were made into a biological engine, it would be an almost lossless energy utilization rate. Then everyone’s travel costs will be higher in the future.
Low, it’s just like everyone using controlled trains to travel.
The prospect became more and more wonderful as she thought about it. Qu Ping immediately contacted the team in the materials department and asked them to create a small submarine. The prerequisite was that it must be a biological product.
"How big?"
"About five centimeters is enough. It needs to have a relatively complete transmission system inside. If not, just give it a sealed shell."
"Oh, can I ask what you want to do?"
"I can't for the time being. I will send you a schematic. Remember! It must be a biological product that can be cultivated and processed, not a metal mechanical product."
"All right."
Faced with such a strange request, the materials department didn't think much about it. Everyone performed their duties. Even if they have a cooperative relationship, they cannot forcefully explore other people's secrets. This is against work discipline.
But what is the concept of a submarine made from biological products? It immediately makes people scratch their heads. I have never heard that submarines are cultivated.
"Head, how about we turn the diatom shell into a submarine? Anyway, the shipment of tube channels has been huge recently."
"What a great idea! We can first use biofilm to build the framework of the submarine, and then fill the submarine's shell with diatom shells through the reproduction of diatoms. This will also meet the requirement that the submarine can be opened, so be it!"
The materials department had good hands-on skills and quickly produced several samples. After reading them, Qu Ping was very satisfied and took them back on the spot.
Open the "submarine" carefully, then put the body of the cyclone into the submarine, and the flagella will be exposed.
As soon as it was put into the water, the submarine disappeared on the spot, so fast that no one could see clearly. The submarine painted with red dots had already reached the edge of the petri dish.
"Did you see the trajectory just now clearly?"
"I didn't see it, but fortunately it was recorded."
"Hurry up!"
The team quickly got busy. Good guys, at this speed, you can swim a hundred times your body length in one second. No one can see clearly without using slow motion.
After catching a cyclone again, I stuffed it into the small submarine.
If you do this, the petri dish the size of an ornamental fish tank will become messy.
These two cyclone bacteria were covered with shells and had red dots, which were full of visual effects. They really had no vision, but they had things tied to their bodies, which made it uncomfortable for everyone, so these two cyclone bacteria were running around desperately.
.
The amazing thing is that no matter how they run around, they can't collide with each other at all. Perhaps this speed is not too fast for them, just like two runners running towards each other, and they have enough reaction time.
After two hours, the two cyclone bacteria stopped moving.
"Eh? What's going on?"
"She must have starved to death. After traveling for so long, I couldn't eat while wearing a submarine, so..."
"That's right, I actually forgot about this... Now open the shell of the submarine and feed it alone. Maybe we can rescue it."
Things did develop like this. After a while, the two hungry cyclone bacteria leaned against the edge of a separate petri dish resentfully, feeling the breath of freedom. If they had mouths, they would probably curse very dirty.
With the previous experience, we have ideas for the subsequent experiments. First, feed them rationed, then put on the submarine shell, and then shout "drive"! Then record how long the cyclone bacteria ran, how far it ran, and how much it ran.
Fast, what is the acceleration, and finally how much work is done per unit heat.
The experiment was carried out for a whole day, and everyone's eyes were so tired that when they closed their eyes, they felt red dots shaking rapidly in front of their eyes.
Qu Ping had no intention of reporting it. After all, this thing has not been completely stabilized yet, and all the experiments are preliminary. What is there to report? If all the progress was reported, wouldn't Chen Xiao be exhausted?
Unexpectedly, Chen Xiao walked into the laboratory easily, carrying a lot of fruits in his hands.
"Why are you here?" Qu Ping was so surprised that she put the pen and experimental folder on the table, walked over to pick up the fruit, and muttered, "I can't finish all the fruit with so much."
"Um, is it possible that this is for the entire team?"
The scene was instantly awkward. Qu Ping glanced at Chen Xiao resentfully. This guy didn't know how to talk to comfort her?
"Well, this is for you, can you share it with everyone?" Chen Xiao quickly changed his words, and Qu Ping bought it instantly.
The effect of the two sentences is actually the same, but the emphasis is different. It changes from everyone's to one person's. This is called preference, which is very similar to love.
Qu Ping sighed softly, this man is too difficult to get. Either he hopes that society's etiquette will break down, or his own etiquette will break down and he will break through the moral bottom line, and he doesn't know if he can win him.
Chen Xiao has been very free recently, concentrating on scientific research and inspecting everywhere. He just happened to be here today to see if there are any problems that need to be solved and to see if there is any progress.
"Huh? Super flagellum? No, super bacteria?" Chen Xiao became interested instantly, and after listening for a while, he thought of a lot, "We can use this to replace all existing mechanical equipment. Metal equipment becomes biological equipment, and biological equipment
The engine can already be put on the agenda."
"That's what I think too. It's not very stable yet. If we want to reach the engine's working capacity, we have to either accumulate the number of cyclone bacteria or increase the size of the cyclone bacteria. Either way will take time."
"Have you ever thought about changing the composition of the culture solution to speed up the culture?"
"I've thought about it, but I want to try it through genetic modification."