BACTERIA may be often associated with diseases and digestion — but it can also play a huge role in the weather.

    And scientists now claim they have worked out how the single celled microbes can be used to make artificial rain.

    This discovery could be a huge lifeline for places that suffer with droughts and is currently being considered as part of a project in the United Arab Emirates.

    Professor Tobias Weidner, a bioengineer at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, was head of the team of researchers who have studied the structure of the “rain-making” bacteria called Pseudomonas syringae.

    He said, “Bacteria can induce ice nucleation in high altitude clouds.

    “The ice nuclei then cause rain fall within low altitude clouds below. So it seems ice bacteria such as P. syringae can induce rain fall.”

    The researchers looked at the microbe’s structure through a spectrometer, which allowed them to see how the bacteria’s surface interacts with water molecules.

    The announcement follows plans, revealed last week, to build a 1.9-km-high mountain in the United Arab Emirates as part of efforts to collect much-needed water in the scorching country.

    Over the last several decades skyrocketing temperatures have blighted the Middle Eastern country, causing rivers to dry, crops to wilt and food prices to soar.

    But scientists believe they can create clouds that could then be forced to rain on demand, or be left for nature to run its course.

    The idea behind creating the mountain is that areas on the slopes would receive more rainfall than flow-lying and flat areas, because the temperature at higher altitudes is much cooler than at sea level.

    As air rises towards the mountains it cools, forming water droplets which, as they become heavy enough, fall to Earth as rain.

    (SD-Agencies)