Skip to main content

Researchers discover bacteria that produces pure gold

Researchers at Michigan State University have identified a bacterium able to segregate gold. The  Cupriavidus metalliduran  not only survives against toxic concentrations of gold chloride, and thrives. When feeding a colony, Kazem Kashefi and Adam Brown led the microbes create nuggets of 24-carat gold - pure gold. Kashefi and Brown achieved what seemed impossible: to produce one of the most valuable substances in the world.The process would be cost prohibitive on a large scale, so the dual transformed its discovery in the art facility - The Great Work of the Metal Lover.

The installation uses a live bacteria as " vehicle of artistic exploration , "says Brown. It consists of a portable laboratory made ​​of a hardware-plated 24-karat gold, one birreator glass The bacteria are fed with gold chloride, highly toxic substance to which organisms are quite resistant. In fact, in just one week they are able to handle the toxic material of precious metal, a process dubbed " microbial alchemy ".Researchers believe that this process usually occurs in the environment. The gold chloride can be found in nature and has no economic value.
The facility received an honorable mention in the contest cyber art  Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, where it will remain on display until October 7.
Source:  Ecouterre

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LG’s first flexible OLED phone due before the year is out

LG plans to launch a flexible OLED smartphone before the end of the year, the company’s VP of mobile has confirmed, though it’s unclear to what extent the work-in-progress handset will actually flex. The OLED panel in question is the handiwork of LG Display according to VP of LG mobile Yoon Bu-hyun, the WSJ  reports, with the proposed device set to launch sometime in Q4. LG Display’s work on flexible OLEDs has been underway for some time, though the company’s efforts have perhaps been overshadowed somewhat by rival Samsung’s YOUM development. Last year, according to a Korea Times report, LG Display was preparing for

Bing Apps for Windows 8 get major updates

Late least year, Microsoft rolled out a half dozen Bing Apps for Windows 8 users, each one focused on a specific category, such as travel and sports. The apps were designed to offer “immersive vertical experiences,” and now, about six months later, a big line of updates for them is being pushed out. Users can grab the updates now by heading into the Windows Store and selecting the updates notification.
Flexible displays are the Future of IT Industry! A part from 4k and smart home appliances, the CES 2013 saw a lot of attention being drawn towards bendable, flexible displays. The elasticised display idea isn’t something new as we have seen hoards of device concepts being crafted around flexible, bendable and even foldable displays. These concept devices give us a futuristic feel, be it a flexible phone to be worn around the wrist or a phone that opens up to turn into a tablet or PSP-like device. But how far is this future? Nokia has been toying with the idea ever since we remember. The technology sounds very fascinating and the possibilities and the extent to which bendable displays could be used are vast and leave us spellbound. However, these have always been concepts and we haven’t seen any device materialise in the real world. There have been several technologies that were conceived in these years and all have been put to their practical use. But the bendable d