Humans continuously emits greenhouse gases, worsening global warming. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulates dramatically over the years and is chemically very stable. Yet, some microbes capture CO2 using highly efficient enzymes. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen together with the Universities of Geneva and Radboud isolated one of these enzymes. When the enzyme was electronically branched on an electrode, they observed the conversion of CO2 to formate with perfect efficiency. This phenomenon will inspire new CO2-fixation systems because of its remarkable directionality and rates. The results are now published in “Angewandte Chemie”.