Producing 24-karat gold with bacteria

This is not a fairy tale chicken egg story. We are talking about the existence of a truly capable bacterium . laying gold.

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a bacterium's ability to withstand toxicity, promising to help in the production of 24-Karat gold.

This bacterium, called Cupriavidus metallidurans , can survive in a metallic environment with a concentration of gold chloride (liquid gold) - an extremely toxic chemical compound found in nature. Even bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans grow at least 25 times stronger in gold chloride than in previous studies.

Bacteria will convert yellow chloride chemicals into valuable solid gold.

The research team, including assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, Kazem Kashefi and Professor of Electronic Arts Adam Brown said, with this ability of bacteria, can be used in alchemy methods. Art, combined with biotechnology and the arts learn to convert gold from liquid that has no value into 24-karat gold.

Bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans eat gold chloride, within a week it can convert these toxins into gold bullion. Based on this mechanism, scientists plan to build a bioreactor using bacteria that eat gold to produce 24-karat gold.

Researchers also need more funding to invest in experiments on a larger scale. However, once creating gold success in this way also poses many problems, especially greed for economic benefits, impacts on the natural environment and ethical issues related to science.