Bacteria that can eat sewer waste and produce electricity.

Bacteria that can create electrically conductive nanowires to transfer energy from one cell to another.

Bacteria that breathe metal or bacterial strains that can live on electrons alone.

These are just a few of the recent discoveries that are examined in this astounding article in this month’s Popular Science.

It’s far too complex for me to explain with a few pulled quotes and illustrations so I recommend perusing it in its entirety it here:
http://www.popsci.com/have-we-found-alien-life