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91 Comments
- InfiniteNothing, on 10/10/2009, -2/+35It would be really interesting if this discovery enabled gold to be produced much more easily thus sending the price down.
- WordsnCollision, on 10/10/2009, -0/+31Do the bacteria look like teeny tiny geese?
- CaliforniaEagle, on 10/10/2009, -3/+23Who would have thought THAT was possible!?
- airyks, on 10/10/2009, -0/+19Real life gold farmers on the way!
- Lane, on 10/10/2009, -2/+21alchemists?
- jerryparid, on 10/10/2009, -2/+17Sign, noobs who didn't read the article. This species of bacterium can't "produce" gold. It simply converts gold compounds into "pure" gold.
- DontThinkSo, on 10/10/2009, -2/+16It's easily possible if you know your chemistry. ;)
- copypastry, on 10/10/2009, -2/+16That would destroy its ability to act as a hedge against the US dollar devaluation.
That would be very ***** up... but interesting. - Travelet, on 10/10/2009, -2/+15original link :
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/09100 ... - evil-doer, on 10/10/2009, -1/+14the look on the faces of the central bank owners faces.. priceless.
these banks have been buying gold for centuries as its the only thing stable. until now? - MrColdheart, on 10/10/2009, -4/+16It would also dethrone gold as a rare metal.
- qxrt, on 10/10/2009, -3/+14People who went to college. At least, the ones who majored in any science.
Gold particles and compounds are used by scientists everywhere in a variety of biological and physical experiments. The only odd thing is how little everyone else is aware of this and only knows gold for its jewelry value. - Rudegar, on 10/10/2009, -0/+10gold is useful because it's the most elastic metal you can get so you can make very thin wires from it which don't break as easy and the fact it don't oxidate or rust and it's good for connectors because it's soft and give a good connection in that respect
but silver is a better natural conductor then gold
and imho gold looks ugly copper looks better for steam-punk stuff and
class stuff silver or even alu looks better
it's only really worth money because we decide it and there is not piles of it around - iheartbakon, on 10/10/2009, -0/+10tl;dr
- venom8599, on 10/10/2009, -1/+11They become silver-obsessed.
- JimmyRyan, on 10/10/2009, -4/+14In other news: Cash 4 Gold has changed their name to "Here take it!"
- AmnesiacJack, on 10/10/2009, -1/+10
- Berkana, on 10/10/2009, -0/+8They aren't synthesizing gold, they are simply using bacteria to precipitate out gold dissolved in toxic compounds. In other words, it's just another form of mining.
This is great news. There are entire toxic lakes that have formed out of the craters of abandoned pit mines all over the world that are filled with mineral rich toxic liquids that nobody knows how to utilize. If they can use bacteria to extract gold out of this stuff, more power to them. - AmnesiacJack, on 10/10/2009, -2/+10To be fair a currency backed by oil and debt isn't exactly any better.
- equanimist, on 10/10/2009, -0/+8They *don't* make gold. They may consolidate it!
- trizzleatl, on 10/10/2009, -0/+8Godzirra ***** gold bricks?
- drmobutu, on 10/10/2009, -0/+7I read someathing recently, about a system that was installed in a water treatment plant in Tokyo (I think...might have been a different city), and they recovered several pounds of gold, straight out the sewage.
- masterkenobi, on 10/10/2009, -0/+7I love goooooooooooold.....
- RutgerB, on 10/10/2009, -2/+9No they look like little jews
- abatch, on 10/10/2009, -4/+10Alchemists rejoice.
- Wisgary, on 10/10/2009, -0/+6Gord
- Coven, on 10/10/2009, -0/+6ow, my brain.
- qxrt, on 10/10/2009, -0/+6I don't think it's that they didn't read the article but rather that they don't understand chemistry.
- Silentnite85, on 10/10/2009, -0/+5Syntaxgs? Is that you?
- EmperorAwesome, on 10/10/2009, -1/+6To be fair, the arbitrary fetishism of specific minerals and jewels needs to be overcome at some point. I'm surprised we don't base the global economy on particularly shiny seashells.
- equanimist, on 10/10/2009, -0/+5You have no idea what you're talking about. Read the article.
- uncleosbert, on 10/10/2009, -0/+5that is astounding.
http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/japanese-waste-tr ... - phunlee, on 10/10/2009, -1/+5I dugg you up because this reminded me of DuckTales. Not so much the Mike Myers reference. My prerogative.
- Subduction, on 10/10/2009, -3/+7I propose we rename this Roniavidus Paullidurans.
- mkw408, on 10/10/2009, -2/+6I think the whole reason for this article is to make people think gold might not be as scarce in the future. If the story catches on it might help keep the gold prices down. Gold is a key indicator of inflation and one of the only things holding our dollar from collapse. Not that our dollar has any gold backing. Gold staying at relatively sane price points make it look like everything is cranking along just fine.
There are many theories out there that suggest Gold prices have been systematically suppressed. Gold prices are starting to increase. I suspect the reason you are seeing all these cash for gold deals out there is that gold is starting to be hoarded. Gold will skyrocket and our lies about the strength of the dollar will be gone.
Bye bye dollar. Bye bye U.S. empire building. - Propethic, on 10/10/2009, -0/+4They do it with uranium too. Sea water contains pretty much, if not every element of the periodic table it's just a matter of extracting it
- JoeHague, on 10/10/2009, -1/+5The article clearly states this discovery will be used to help miners discover new deposits- which contradicts almost your entire comment/
- svendm, on 10/11/2009, -0/+3Interesting. Reducing (as the chemistry lingo goes) gold to its metallic form, while certainly unusual, isn't a total surprise. We already know about a number of other bactera that reduce other metals (I think shewanella algae reduces gold in certain circumstances). The fact that the latin name of this one means "copper-living metal-resisting" should give a hint.
It's well known that seawater has a huge amount of gold in it, but at concentrations that are still too low to make it commercial. The reknowned chemist Fritz Haber famously failed to in the 30's in a scheme to pay off Germany's war debts. The failure was actually due to him having had bad data that overestimated the amount of gold)
You've got to wonder if this'd be able to make it work. Stick some bacteria in a tank of seawater and let the solid gold precipitate and gather at the bottom... - flyingsquirle, on 10/10/2009, -0/+3how do you do that?!
- iheartbakon, on 10/10/2009, -0/+3
- pstroll, on 10/10/2009, -3/+6Some how this:
"The experiments showed that C. metallidurans rapidly accumulates toxic gold complexes from a solution prepared in the lab. This process promotes gold toxicity, which pushes the bacterium to induce oxidative stress and metal resistance clusters as well as an as yet uncharacterized Au-specific gene cluster in order to defend its cellular integrity."
gets interpreted as this by the digg community:
"ZOMG!!! Paultards will kill themselves" - hereticoftruth, on 10/10/2009, -0/+3This was known decades ago in California and Alaska at least. Certain bacteria plate out dissolved gold into nuggets. How fast the process was I don't know. But it was never claimed to be fast.
- stuffradio, on 10/10/2009, -0/+3Will they farm gold for me as cheap as they are now? $8 gets you 10,000 gold pieces!
- seltaeb4, on 10/10/2009, -5/+7Ron Paul read about this and has been masturbating furiously ever since.
- Berkana, on 10/10/2009, -1/+3RTFA
- cfuse, on 10/11/2009, -0/+2Just because it becomes cheaper and/or easier to produce doesn't mean you will see that saving passed on. On the plus side, they can't horde the cleaner environment.
- equanimist, on 10/10/2009, -0/+2@DDRSkata, Maybe, maybe not. No "/s". I have to assume he's being serious like that stupid show Eureka. Bacteria as little alchemists. It's just stupid, and, I'm sick of hearing it. Blah!
I actually feel kinda better :) - Meocross, on 10/12/2009, -0/+2
- shanealeslie, on 10/10/2009, -0/+2Ok, I'll have to admit that I laughed at both of the above comments, but felt shame after the second.
- InfiniteNothing, on 10/10/2009, -0/+2No heat or chemicals required with bacteria. It makes it much safer.
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