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Glass-Eating Microbes

Posted by Hemos on from the don't-let-them-in-notre-dame dept.

JoeyPea writes "Researchers have found that volcanic glass (super-cooled lava) in the ocean's upper crust is eaten by microbes. The researchers found tiny tubular tunnels bored through the rock. The breakdown of volcanic rock was thought to be a chemical/physical process, but now it obviously has a biological component."

2 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Uses in chip fab? by Arjuna+Theban · · Score: 2, Informative


    It would probably have no use, since they are way too slow to be used in real processing. There are many ways to etch glass or pyrex (Na doped glass) etc using HF, H3PO4 etc. I can see people trying it out in R&D but hell, I'm not gonna wait for a few years to finish a device.

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  2. It's not silicon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Oh nevermind.

    I just read the article, and it states that it is "glassy" lava, rather than specifically silicon. Thereafter, the article used the word glass, but it is really just glassy lava.

    Lava isn't necessarily silicon. Lava is what generated the Hawaiian islands, and certainly breaks down into dirt.