Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Gold-Digging Microbe

       Scientists have recently discovered a bacterium, Delftia acidovorans, that can turn dissolved gold into solid gold. It does this by giving off a protein molecule that binds with the dissolved gold to make it into a solid. This could potentially change the way that gold is mined in the future. Researchers say that the bacterium may one day be used at gold mining sites to help process gold. Although there have been other discoveries of organisms doing similar things to other dissolved metals, this is the first of its kind involving gold. The scientists theory is that this technique used by the bacterium is one for defense because gold acts as a toxin to many other bacteria. It is also possible that it is simply evolving to live in an environment that also includes gold.



Link:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348019/description/Gold-digging_microbe

NOS Themes
1. Science is collaborative
2. Science is based on evidence
3. Importance of repeatability


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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 7:30 PM

    That's really interesting, Jacob! I'm curious to see if these bacterium will be utilized in the future to aid in the mining of gold. It's also intriguing that they are the first (discovered) of their kind to bind dissolved gold to make it into a solid.

    I wonder what other type of materials will be able to be reattached together in the future?

    Here is an article for future research:

    http://www.nature.com/news/gold-digging-bacterium-makes-precious-particles-1.12352

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  2. AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 10:29 PM

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  3. AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 11:10 PM

    That's very interesting. I wonder if these bacteria can actually be cultivated and used by humans. Can other bacteria have this effect on other minerals? This could really lead to a breakthrough in mining technology.

    You might also want to check out this website
    http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/scientists-discover-how-bacteria-changes-ions-into-gold/

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