Discover Your Microbe Personality: Which Microbe Are You?

Rhodoferax ferrireducens You are…
Rhodoferax ferrireducens!

Yahoo! You are Rhodoferax ferrireducens!

Similar to you, this microbe is a bit disorganized. Its cell contents aren’t neatly organized, in much the same way that your socks never manage to find their way into a drawer! R. ferrireducens takes your ability to hold your breath one step further — it actually lives without oxygen!

You also both share a taste for “eating out” — this microbe feeds on organic material in marine sediments. What’s amazing is that when R. ferrireducens breaks down these organic molecules, energy is released that can be harnessed to make electricity to heat our homes and power our light bulbs! So, this powerful little organism could potentially create an environmentally friendly form of electricity.

Photo credit: Derek Lovley, University of Massachusetts. (Click on it to see a larger version in a new window.)