Viruses have plagued mankind since before recorded history, but we’ve only been studying the little buggers since they were first identified in the late nineteenth century.  That 100+ years of study has yielded many benefits; scientists have not only learned how to protect us from many of their devastating effects, they’ve begun to use viruses to help us, too.

The latest human-friendly virus? A genetically engineered bacteriophage redesigned to create a new generation of nanowire batteries.  Essentially, these tamed viruses are set loose, given a supply of battery-making materials and a friendly production environment.  The results: a battery that could outlast our current Li-Ion batteries three times over.

This M13 virus was designed by Angela Belcher and her team at MIT, and the batteries the virus make possible not only promise longer life for our battery-powered gismos and machines (MP3 players, cell phones, computers and even cars), they’re also more environmentally friendly to produce than today’s batteries.  In addition, these new batteries can be “very lightweight, flexible, and [able to] take the shape of their container.”

So far, the team has only built a prototype good for 100 charges, but this could be the start of something great for mobile devices.  And the so-called “molecular production process” employed for this type of battery could spread to many other types of computing hardware as well.