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Some bacteria need oxygen to live and, like us, they will die, if they are left without oxygen. Other bacteria are more flexible and have means to survive when oxygen is not present. And, there also is a different type of bacteria to which oxygen is toxic and they will die, if they are exposed to it. I am working with a bacterium of the second type that can survive with, or without oxygen. Its scientific name is Shewanella oneidensis, though its nickname is Shewy! But, before we talk about Shewy, let us see why we are using oxygen.

When we eat, our food is broken down in our stomachs to provide us with nutrients and energy. During this process, at the cell level, our cells generate electrons. Those electrons, however, cannot hang around on their own, so we use oxygen to pass those electrons onto.

While we only use oxygen to pass those electrons onto, Shewy has a remarkable respiration system and it can use almost any molecule that is able to accept electrons, including solid metals. So, we have bacteria, Shewy, that in order to live pass electrons to solid metals in their environment; in other words, they generate electricity (a flow of electrons). So, if instead of solid metals we have an electrode, we can capture and store electricity.

The electrons, of course, are “made” inside the bacterium, but they must travel all the way through to the outer surface of the bacterium to interact with metals in the surrounding environment. This is achieved by different proteins that act as electron-carriers. Those proteins cannot use the electrons, but they can carry them from one place to the other. And that’s where I come in! I’m trying to understand how proteins do that and how the whole bacterium co-ordinates the flow of electrons.

In a typical day, I tend to get in the office at about 7 or 8 am and have my coffee while replying to e-mails and either do some reading, or do the calculations for the day’s experiments. Then most of the day is spent in the lab doing my experiments. I often need to have a chat with other members of the lab, or from other labs when I need some help with a particular technique. There is a lot of team-work in Science. Once a week, all the lab members meet with the professor to discuss our work and ideas. Besides that, I at other times attend seminars, where leading researchers visit us from other Universities to present their research. I quite like attending such seminars as I keep up-to-date with advances in my field and also learn a lot about other closely related fields. Then, it’s lunch time! I usually take half an hour to an hour break before I get back to the lab and to my experiments. By the end of the day, I tend to plan what I have to do the next day.

However, before I head home for dinner, it’s exercise time at the gym. I’m not a huge fan of the gym, but it’s necessary as I like to keep fit. In a lazy day, though, I might just do some running. Then, in the evening, I usually do some more reading with some nice music on, or catch up with friends locally at a coffee-shop / pub, or with friends from Glasgow, Sheffield, or Greece via Skype. Other times, I might do some writing, or just play some strategy games.