Self-assembly of nanoparticles on live bacterium: An avenue to fabricate electronic devices

24-Carat bacteria: A bacteria/nanoparticle composite device is operated by applying a bias of 10 V across a bacterial bridge, which is coated with gold nanoparticles and spans two gold electrodes, and measuring the current (see image). A change in humidity from 0 to 20% causes swelling of the bacteria membrane which results in a 40-fold decrease of the current although the interparticle distance increases less than 0.2 nm. (Figure Presented) © 2005 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.