Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Scientists Discover how Bacteria Change Ions into Gold


Scientists Discover how Bacteria Change Ions into Gold

Bacteria Changes Ions into Gold



Scientist at McMaster University have just described how bacteria has the ability to changes ions into gold. The bacteria Delftia Acidovorans is part of a self-defense mechanism. When the bacteria senses the gold ions dissolved in water, which is toxic, it releases a protein called delftibactin. The protein acts as a sheild for the bacteria and changes the poisonous ions into harmless particles. With this knowledge it could be used to help dissolve gold from water and to help people identify streams and rivers carrying the mineral.

4 comments:

  1. This article has these NOS themes:

    1. It has the role of motivation because scientists are motivated to find out if bacteria can change ions into gold so that people can mine and find gold more easily.

    2. It has the role of skepticism because it might be skeptical that bacteria can change ions into gold.

    3. It is subject to debate and tentative because it doesn't seem like very many tests have been done on this yet.

    4. It is based on evidence because the scientists at McMaster University did tests to see if Delftia Acidovorans changed ions into solid gold.

    Katherine Gao Hour 1

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  2. That's really interesting that the bacteria can change poisonous particles in harmless particles. I never realized that gold was poisonous because some people have gold teeth as a replacement. Here is the link to the article http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/scientists-discover-how-bacteria-changes-ions-into-gold/

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  3. NOS themes:
    Role of motivation and curiosity because it made finding gold easier
    It is based on evidence because the found that Delftia Acidovorans changed ions into gold
    I think this article was very interesting and cool that scientists discovered this.

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  4. This discovery could be very helpful in cleaning up toxic waste water caused by gold mining by producing gold nuggets. Also, if you introduced a bacteria into toxic waste water, it could multiply and you could possibly have a great accumulation of gold in the future.
    http://urbanmeter.weebly.com/46/post/2013/02/scientists-discover-bacteria-turning-ion-into-gold.html

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