"Solar-Powered Microbes: Transforming CO2 into Bioplastic through Imaging"

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a multimodal imaging platform to study microbe-semiconductor biohybrids, which use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products like bioplastics. The platform allows for single-cell resolution imaging, providing insights into the energy conversion pathways and protein behaviors within the biohybrids. The researchers discovered the functional roles of different hydrogenases in the process and found that the bacteria can uptake a larger amount of electrons from semiconductor photocatalysts than previously thought. The findings could lead to the development of more efficient energy conversion strategies and have implications for other biological-inorganic systems.