Interesting

[Moocher]

 

Bacteria transformes chemicals into gold

Now wouldn’t it be great and wonderful if we could all just take chemicals that we find and somehow magically turn them into gold? E could all make a fortune overnight, although good would most certainly become devalued of we all owned bucket loads of the stuff.

Chemically made gold!

Well, it turns out that there has been a discovery that allows such a thing to happen, although don’t expect to become rich any time too soon as the process required to get there is not something one can simpy do in the comfort of their kitchen.

Researchers at Michigan state university have found that they can take a chemical nicknamed liquid gold and indeed turn it into 24K solid gold. Amazing. This is called microbial alchemy and does work. "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.

As mentioned before, it is not a cost-effective way to produce gold. You wouldn’t make enough in selling the gold as to cover the costs of this process, let alone make any profit. However, it is useful in that it pushes the boundaries of our capabilities just that little bit ore. To turn a toxin into little flakes of gold right in front of our eyes is a feat all of its own without the financial impact anyway, "Art can probe and question the impact of science in the world, and 'The Great Work of the Metal Lover' speaks directly to the scientific preoccupation while trying to shape and bend biology to our will within the postbiological age, "said Adam Brown, associate professor. And he is right. Its not about monetary gain all of the time and we need to remember that.

[DarkChameleon]

1 hour ago, Moocher said:

 

Bacteria transformes chemicals into gold

Now wouldn’t it be great and wonderful if we could all just take chemicals that we find and somehow magically turn them into gold? E could all make a fortune overnight, although good would most certainly become devalued of we all owned bucket loads of the stuff.

Chemically made gold!

Well, it turns out that there has been a discovery that allows such a thing to happen, although don’t expect to become rich any time too soon as the process required to get there is not something one can simpy do in the comfort of their kitchen.

Researchers at Michigan state university have found that they can take a chemical nicknamed liquid gold and indeed turn it into 24K solid gold. Amazing. This is called microbial alchemy and does work. "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.

As mentioned before, it is not a cost-effective way to produce gold. You wouldn’t make enough in selling the gold as to cover the costs of this process, let alone make any profit. However, it is useful in that it pushes the boundaries of our capabilities just that little bit ore. To turn a toxin into little flakes of gold right in front of our eyes is a feat all of its own without the financial impact anyway, "Art can probe and question the impact of science in the world, and 'The Great Work of the Metal Lover' speaks directly to the scientific preoccupation while trying to shape and bend biology to our will within the postbiological age, "said Adam Brown, associate professor. And he is right. Its not about monetary gain all of the time and we need to remember that.

They can man make diamonds right now but not to the quality of the jewelry type diamonds but the cost of industrial diamonds fell when it was proven they could manufacture that level of quality for less then mining costs.

[Moocher]

Just hope it is not in OUR TIME😬

[Fathallazf]

21 hours ago, DarkChameleon said:

They can man make diamonds right now but not to the quality of the jewelry type diamonds but the cost of industrial diamonds fell when it was proven they could manufacture that level of quality for less then mining costs.

A lab grown diamond and a natural diamond are both almost exactly the same “quality” Hence, they are both diamonds and have the same characteristics. The only difference between them is their inclusions which is really difficult to detect unless using special equipment. A natural diamond is more expensive because as mentioned, the cost of mining and of course because it took it billions of years to form naturally. 

[RacerCool]

Turning other elements into gold?  Or isolating existing gold from other elements?  Alchemy or chemistry?

Because to change one element into another, given current scientific understanding, you have to change its atomic nucleus.  You need to be able to add protons and neutrons, which takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy.  And the only way we presently know how to do that is in a nuclear reaction, specifically, fusion.  Meaning, a thermonuclear reaction, which itself takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy to ignite.  Basically, a thermonuclear bomb (a fusion bomb) requires a fission atomic bomb to ignite it.  

Fusion means you're taking two atoms, say hydrogen atoms, and fusing them together to make a heavier element, such as helium.  It requires heating the elements to millions of degrees.  It's what the sun and other stars do, and it's what powers them.

So...these guys are doing this in a lab...with bacteria...?  O.o

If so, there you go, everyone!  Cold fusion, achieved!

[DarkChameleon]

46 minutes ago, RacerCool said:

Turning other elements into gold?  Or isolating existing gold from other elements?  Alchemy or chemistry?

Because to change one element into another, given current scientific understanding, you have to change its atomic nucleus.  You need to be able to add protons and neutrons, which takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy.  And the only way we presently know how to do that is in a nuclear reaction, specifically, fusion.  Meaning, a thermonuclear reaction, which itself takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy to ignite.  Basically, a thermonuclear bomb (a fusion bomb) requires a fission atomic bomb to ignite it.  

Fusion means you're taking two atoms, say hydrogen atoms, and fusing them together to make a heavier element, such as helium.  It requires heating the elements to millions of degrees.  It's what the sun and other stars do, and it's what powers them.

So...these guys are doing this in a lab...with bacteria...?  O.o

So you're saying it's possible...ok, modifying my 3d printer time...lol.

[RacerCool]

Just now, DarkChameleon said:

So you're saying it's possible...ok, modifying my 3d printer time...lol.

LOL!  

 

[UKStacker]

2 hours ago, RacerCool said:

Turning other elements into gold?  Or isolating existing gold from other elements?  Alchemy or chemistry?

Because to change one element into another, given current scientific understanding, you have to change its atomic nucleus.  You need to be able to add protons and neutrons, which takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy.  And the only way we presently know how to do that is in a nuclear reaction, specifically, fusion.  Meaning, a thermonuclear reaction, which itself takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy to ignite.  Basically, a thermonuclear bomb (a fusion bomb) requires a fission atomic bomb to ignite it.  

Fusion means you're taking two atoms, say hydrogen atoms, and fusing them together to make a heavier element, such as helium.  It requires heating the elements to millions of degrees.  It's what the sun and other stars do, and it's what powers them.

So...these guys are doing this in a lab...with bacteria...?  O.o

If so, there you go, everyone!  Cold fusion, achieved!

I've seen lead turned to gold on TV. They used the LHC at CERN to produce 6 atoms, I've no idea of the cost (I presume 6 or 7 figure cost per atom), but less messy than an atomic bomb.

[RacerCool]

If they're doing it in CERN, or in any other particle collider, then they're doing essentially the same thing.  And they're using enormous amounts of power, to accelerate atoms to near light speeds, then crashing them together, head-on.  That's how they're fusing them together.  Same idea, just a different, highly impractical and absurdly expensive method.

Note that when any atomic fusion happens, there are enormous amounts of energy release, as well as other exotic particles, like anti-matter, gamma rays, etc.  You know that famous equation, E=mc^2?  That's the amount of energy contained in a given amount of mass: the energy (E) is equal to the amount of mass x the speed of light, squared.  So that's the scale of energy we're talking about here.

They're not doing this with bacteria on a petrie dish, sorry.

[SiliconToad]

I found the source article, linked here [Metallomics Journal] and a commentary, linked here [Phys.org].  The title is a bit misleading - what the researchers did was use bacteria to aggregate and participate otherwise difficult to extract gold-containing compounds in solution. It's not "making" gold, just converting a gold compound into a gold precipitate. 

Still cool tech, but probably won't be robust enough for commercial mining. And even if it were, mercury extraction is likely orders of magnitude more efficient if one doesn't care or have to deal with the safety/environmental problems associated with its use.  

With regard to actual "alchemy," I think it's a matter of time, perhaps not in our lifetimes, before folks are able to generate energy at a level where knocking neutrons off atoms on a commercially viable scale is possible. This would allow the easy production of an array of stable elements that are otherwise difficult to obtain, gold being the chief suspect. 

[UKStacker]

5 hours ago, RacerCool said:

If they're doing it in CERN, or in any other particle collider, then they're doing essentially the same thing.  And they're using enormous amounts of power, to accelerate atoms to near light speeds, then crashing them together, head-on.  That's how they're fusing them together.  Same idea, just a different, highly impractical and absurdly expensive method.

Note that when any atomic fusion happens, there are enormous amounts of energy release, as well as other exotic particles, like anti-matter, gamma rays, etc.  You know that famous equation, E=mc^2?  That's the amount of energy contained in a given amount of mass: the energy (E) is equal to the amount of mass x the speed of light, squared.  So that's the scale of energy we're talking about here.

They're not doing this with bacteria on a petrie dish, sorry.

I know.

[mr-dead]

14 hours ago, RacerCool said:

Turning other elements into gold?  Or isolating existing gold from other elements?  Alchemy or chemistry?

Because to change one element into another, given current scientific understanding, you have to change its atomic nucleus.  You need to be able to add protons and neutrons, which takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy.  And the only way we presently know how to do that is in a nuclear reaction, specifically, fusion.  Meaning, a thermonuclear reaction, which itself takes ENORMOUS amounts of energy to ignite.  Basically, a thermonuclear bomb (a fusion bomb) requires a fission atomic bomb to ignite it.  

Fusion means you're taking two atoms, say hydrogen atoms, and fusing them together to make a heavier element, such as helium.  It requires heating the elements to millions of degrees.  It's what the sun and other stars do, and it's what powers them.

So...these guys are doing this in a lab...with bacteria...?  O.o

If so, there you go, everyone!  Cold fusion, achieved!

I think CERN produces gold too, wouldn't fancy the electric bill though.

 

edit.

just read someone already posted it, should read the whole thread first 🤐🤐