Researchers Discover Bacteria That Produces Pure Gold (a case for fiat money)

A team of Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium that has the ability to withstand incredible amounts of toxicity to create 24-karat gold. This process, known as microbial alchemy, will help scientists turn a substance of no value into a solid, precious metal.

Researchers Discover Bacteria That Produces Pure Gold
Scientists Use Super-Strong Bacteria to Produce 24K Gold

This is an amazing discovery and one that supports my claim (ref. The Gold Delusion) that fiat currency is better than one backed by something, like gold.

It was only a mater of time before technology (or in this case a discovery) made the creation, and not the mining of gold, a reality. Imagine if the dollar was backed by gold. Utilizing this, or some other future technological method, any individual or nation could make the dollar worthless. Gold would become essentially worthless.

I wonder when and how this news will begin to affect the commodities market.

b.s.

if you read the article, the bacteria converts gold chloride into 24k gold.

it doesn't make gold, it just separates the pure gold from the chloride.

gold 1 - science 0.

If it actually made pure gold, gold would be worthless. Why not just back a currency on buttons or ring pops?

ETA: Guilty of not reading your whole post...you said pretty much exactly what I said.

Wow that's cool, good find. Didn't have time to read the article, but I'm really hoping that bacteria growing in my basement starts producing some karats for me.

Currency is a funny thing. Its only valuable as people make it. Whether it is backed by gold or anything else. Hard to wrap your mind around a concept where anything you want essentially has no "price" whatsoever.

You just have to come to the conclusion that currency, as we know it, is essentially worthless.

Will work for food/shelter/education/entertainment sounds more and more like a good way to go about things. How to do it is the real question.

I read an article like that about a year and a half ago. The bacteria only assemble the gold into particles or gold dust. These bacteria live in some places in nature. Maybe the researchers modified the bacteria to work faster. They have magnets that pick up gold also.

Now all I have to do is find me a ton of free gold chloride. Oxides, sulfides, sulfates, chlorides, etc. All elements come in many forms. Kind of like how water can be gas, liquid or solid. Three state for the same thing. If its gold, its gold. It can't be unmade or poofed into existence from nothing. You would need a supernova for that.

The gold in we see in metal form in jewelry, coins and ingots has been refined to that state from ores or waste electronics, etc.

reply to post by randomname


It still impacts the value of gold. They are essentially taking something of less value,that is found in nature and toxic, and turning it into something that has more practical applications and decreases its scarcity. That would drive the price of gold down.

My point still remains valid.

At this point in human development, we still need currency. Pegging currency to something tangible only means that anyone who can create, hoard or find said item has the power and the money. This allows for greater manipulation than fiat. Yes, both can be manipulated, but a strong nation economically and morally is far less likely to suffer that problem based on fiat, but could easily if based on a tangible good.

This brings up another aspect of consideration on the matter. A currency should be internal to a nation. Multinational currencies cause problems when multiple governments have different economic policies and practices.

There is a natural progression of exchange as society develops. We started out with trade or bartering. We then settled on common currency (metal). This led to backed paper currency. This became fiat. This evolution occurs as society progresses, develops and grows both in size and in civility. Ultimately the most advanced society would have no cash or economic system, as everyone would have access to anything and everything they need and the individual is guided by being in a perfect state of responsibility, morality and ethics. That is likely a long way off, if we as a species can ever achieve it. I could however see a point in our near development where time is somehow used as a currency.

reply to post by Wolf321


Or just mix Gold chloride with Hydrogen Peroxide aka Bleach.

Rare, strange and fragile bacteria or the most common household chemical around????

On contact with water, AuCl3 forms a series of species, sometimes described as AuCl3·H2O and its conjugate base [AuCl3(OH)]−. Reaction with reducing agents such as hydrogen peroxide or Fe2+ causes elemental gold to be precipitated from solution.[1]

Gold(III) chloride

It's very cool, but not practical nor economical. Gold chloride isn't even found abundantly in nature.

LOL guys, MONO atomic gold is produced one tiny fragment at a time ONLY when two BINARY STARS begin to absorb each other and fuse into a new star. This is the process that sends gold atoms careening through the universe and into the atmospheres of planets. In the atmosphere, gold is attracted to water, with which it precipitates, explaining to a great degree why gold can be found in or near creeks and rivers.

Anywhere water can be found, gold should be there too.

There might be photoelectric alchemy we don't understand, i.e. ions hitting metal causing a reaction.
More likely than bacteria heheh

Should make silver more precious!

Already a thread on this.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And the bacteria is not making any gold, fools. It's making gold the same as you make water by removing the salt from saltwater.

reply to post by jacknast76


My thread was to discuss the monetary aspect of it. As I have addressed, I am aware that it is not formulating gold from stray protons, neutrons and electrons. My point was that this process, in its early development, shows that the ability to increase the supply of gold, thus making it less scarce and its value diminish, is a simple example of why it is foolish to think that a tangible backed currency is any more secure than fiat.

You could also simply pass gold chloride through an ion exchange column and make pure gold.

Working with microorganism is fun and natural, but it's also a pita and can be quite expensive. Especially when you can just add some cheap oxidizer, as stated above, to do the same thing.