Science makes gold

[Snail2]

On the costs of production, right? So it doesn't actually matter if you extract gold from something (since there is enough gold as gold in nature) or convert something into gold, provided you gain enough profits to cover your expenses. Gold will be gold in any case.

Gold is gold indeed. But why tinkering with bacteria when you can achive the same results by using your hob in the kitchen for half the price ?

[1713557151]

1713557151

[tee-rex]

On the costs of production, right? So it doesn't actually matter if you extract gold from something (since there is enough gold as gold in nature) or convert something into gold, provided you gain enough profits to cover your expenses. Gold will be gold in any case.

Gold is gold indeed. But why tinkering with bacteria when you can achive the same results by using your hob in the kitchen for half the price ?

This is a good question indeed. But why think so narrowly? If you could "create" bacteria that lay out gold nuggets extracting gold from something that you could easily extract yourself at half the price, why not make the next step and breed a new strain that would bring you gold from sea water, for example?

[Snail2]

This is a good question indeed. But why think so narrowly? If you could "create" bacteria that lay out gold nuggets extracting gold from something that you could easily extract yourself at half the price, why not make the next step and breed a new strain that would bring you gold from sea water, for example?

As a first step it's nice, indeed. I was thinking on such life form, but bacterias used to spread across wast areas, so harvesting the extracted gold would be difficult. If that bacteria could live in symbiotic relationship with some sort of crab and would store the extracted gold in the crab's exoskeleton, then we just need to build a homing instint for moulting into the crab, and voila we could have a yearly gold harvest in a certain river (and an issue with the miner's workers union).

[desired_username]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

[Wilikon]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-04-24/google-chiefs-back-startup-mining-asteroids-for-metals

[bigkahuna]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

Slow it down, maybe. But the amount of earth's resources required to launch and operate spacecraft takes a terrible toll on our environment!

[dsly]

I don't think they will ever be able to produce too much to bring the prices down. Or they are keeping it a secret and producing all the gold and already selling it.

[tee-rex]

I don't think they will ever be able to produce too much to bring the prices down. Or they are keeping it a secret and producing all the gold and already selling it.

You might have noticed that gold prices have already fallen down and keep low for nearly two years by now. Some bacteria obviously have an agenda.

[finnile]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

Well that would actually mine more rare rocks not found on earth. I wonder what plans will google unveil.

[ajareselde]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

Slow it down, maybe. But the amount of earth's resources required to launch and operate spacecraft takes a terrible toll on our environment!

Science that takes toll on our environment can be justified for the greather good, and can help restore environment to healthier levels.
Anyways, i dont believe that asteroid mining would slow down anything back here on earth, they would just multiply the greed by two..

cheers

[Mikestang]

No one "made" gold here, they refined it from an ore.  The only difference being they used bacteria to refine it rather than an industrial process.  The only way to make gold is with a supernova.

Slow it down, maybe. But the amount of earth's resources required to launch and operate spacecraft takes a terrible toll on our environment!

That's why asteroid-based mining + 3-D printing is the way to go.
http://gizmodo.com/how-asteroid-mining-could-pay-for-our-first-space-colon-1685429089

[Hamuki]

No real updates on this???

Looks awesome.

All I have seen that had with science to do was getting gold from PC parts that were obsolete.

[desired_username]

Asteroid mining would be cool too. It would certainly slow down the destruction of our planet.

Well that would actually mine more rare rocks not found on earth. I wonder what plans will google unveil.

Earth formed from the same "space rocks"

[Twipple]

No real updates on this???

Looks awesome.

All I have seen that had with science to do was getting gold from PC parts that were obsolete.

Article is from 2012. So apparently doesn't look like it has been tested much as of now.

[Lorenzo]

No one "made" gold here, they refined it from an ore.  The only difference being they used bacteria to refine it rather than an industrial process.  The only way to make gold is with a supernova.

Actually I believe it's possible to synthesize gold using a particle accelerator. It's economically impractical since it costs millions to produce just a few grams, and the end result is also usually highly radioactive which would make it unsuitable for pretty much any application where gold is currently used.

[Rishblitz]

There will be a time when science can make gold, but science can't make bitcoins

Nope just hackers.