http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_belcher_using_nature_to_grow_batteries.html

Nature is awesome, im glad people are being inspired by it. And growing batteries would solve a lot of issues.

This tech has been promised for some time, glad to see that it's picking up speed. We need new energy sources and energy storage devices that don't require limited resorces like rare earth elements etc.

I guess that would help the earth,but I don't understand all of that science mumbo jumbo.

basically her team took virus bacteria, taught it to replicate thinks like calcium, metals, etc atoms and discovered how to make them replicate in layers creating a battery. 

I've been saying stuff like this for ages. I kept reading all this stuff about synthetic nano structures/nano technology when nature has provided us with some of the most complex nano structures and catalysts in the universe in the form of proteins and nucleic acids. Good to see this stuff is moving forward.

Basically, they look at viruses and speed up evolution until they find a virus that can create a battery in structure and function. They then take that virus and speed up evolution again until they find one that makes a better battery and repeat that until they have a decent battery.

Even though I probably haven't seen more than four or five of them, I love TED talks. They're really enlightening.

This was a lot more interesting than I expected. I didn't realise that microbes could do stuff like that. I'd like it if someone could list its drawbacks, though. Surely, it can't be that easy - there must be some cost issues and such involved. If they weren't, then clearly all our cars would be powered by viruses and nothing else.

Haha, I've noticed this is your second Ted link in recent times. That site is shit-addictive, for some reason.

No, it's definately not that easy, lol. The genetic part takes a lot of time in terms of research. Things like ligation and the evolution stuff is hugely time consuming and requires a lot of experimentation and a lot of trial and error. It looks promising so far though and with some more investment there are probably ways to speed up research in the area.

The other issue is that this is all still early stage and small scale stuff. Virtually no-one has any experience with trying to scale-up this kind of biotech to even pilot (for pre-manufaturing) scales.

I suspected as much. I'd like to see how this technology plays out if investment increases. I don't know how on earth you're supposed to mass produce it, though.