First it was grapes, then cockroaches, and now snails have become the latest organism to generate electricity through an implanted biofuel cell. The process works similarly in all three situations: the electricity comes from a metabolic process involving the transfer of electrons from sugar (such as glucose) to oxygen. In the case of the snail, two electrodes from a biofuel cell are implanted into holes in the snail’s shell, with the anode performing glucose oxidation and the cathode performing oxygen reduction. When the electrons flow between the electrodes, they produce an electric current.
