Bacteria that produces Gold

source

Microbial alchemy is what we’re doing – transforming gold from something that has no value into a solid, precious metal that’s valuable,” said Kazem Kashefi, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.

He and Adam Brown, associate professor of electronic art and intermedia, found the metal-tolerant bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans can grow on massive concentrations of gold chloride – or liquid gold, a toxic chemical compound found in nature.

In fact, the bacteria are at least 25 times stronger than previously reported among scientists, the researchers determined in their art installation, “The Great Work of the Metal Lover,” which uses a combination of biotechnology, art and alchemy to turn liquid gold into 24-karat gold. The artwork contains a portable laboratory made of 24-karat gold-plated hardware, a glass bioreactor and the bacteria, a combination that produces gold in front of an audience.

Brown and Kashefi fed the bacteria unprecedented amounts of gold chloride, mimicking the process they believe happens in nature. In about a week, the bacteria transformed the toxins and produced a gold nugget.

I wonder what the implications from this will be. There may be a day where Gold is so common it holds no real intrinsic value. Only time will tell.

This would be to gold markets what e-cat would be to energy markets. If only it would not need goldchloride to begin with. There are already easy methods for making gold from goldchloride. Certainly easier than growing a bacteria.

If this bacteria can be found in the digestive tract of humans, no one is gonna flush their toilets anymore.

The moment these bacteria become a common practice, is the moment that even the stuff backing our worthless money becomes worthless.

Originally posted by varikonniemi
This would be to gold markets what e-cat would be to energy markets. If only it would not need goldchloride to begin with. There are already easy methods for making gold from goldchloride. Certainly easier than growing a bacteria.

edit on 2-10-2012 by varikonniemi because: correction

How about starting a thread on how to make gold from gold chloride then?

I would be interested to see if it works.......

Originally posted by solarstorm
If this bacteria can be found in the digestive tract of humans, no one is gonna flush their toilets anymore.

So if I were to ingest gold chloride, would I poop out little gold nuggets?

If we have the bacteria in us, then essentially we should be able to produce gold....No?

Hmmm I don't think this is as dramatic as people think it is. You have to start with a gold compound to begin with. The bacteria then breaks down the gold chloride into gold.

If you have gold chloride you don't need bacteria to break it down. There's a simpler, faster chemical process for that i.e. gold refining.

I'd be super impressed if the bacteria ate raw sewage and then crapped out gold.

reply to post by solarstorm


But they need Gold Chloride thought and I'm guessing that trying to drink that yourself would be rather bad for you even if the bacteria could stay somewhere in your gut where the Gold Chloride could accumulate. I really doubt that a human body could be used for this process at all.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
The moment these bacteria become a common practice, is the moment that even the stuff backing our worthless money becomes worthless.

how do these bacteria affect the worth of a promise to pay? Our currency hasn't been backed by gold in decades.

Lot of people are missing the fact that AuCl(Gold Chloride) does not occurs in nature. Gold Chloride is man made by using GOLD with chlorine gas.... so there is no new gold producing... its a reverse process of AuCl.. so the bacteria pretty much digest AuCl and produces Gold.. by separating it, there are other ways to obtain gold from AuCl form.

Only way i think this is possible if there is abundance of AuCl, so they can throw these bacteria on the area to grow and digest it without manually going thru lab, but it would still need to be purified. so....

edit: There is nothing to make money from, you would need to have the original gold to produce the gold... in fact you might lose some gold in the process since you are dealing with living creatures.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


Just because a human body had these both within it wouldn't mean that this process would occur at all , especially considering all the millions of other things that would be mixed in with it in our bodies.

reply to post by Foundryman


i think people are just reading the title and jumping to insane conclusions as usual. Who would want to ingest Gold Chloride anyway let alone enough to produce a decent amount of gold. I thought it was a bad joke at first, but I think it's just people nit knowing what they are on about, as if a human body is a suitable environment for this process anyway!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


Nope this bacteria is dangerous to humans, and plus it would not live in our body due to different type of pH levels and nutrients and of course these have to deal with our very own army, our intestinal floras and antibodies.

reply to post by Grimpachi


WOW just wow. Deny ignorace, I'm about to explode here.

This bacteria is creating gold as much as you create water by removng the salt from salt water.