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Growing Your Own Gold

Posted by timothy on from the requires-patience dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "Scientists believe it may be possible to grow gold like growing potatoes. Time to throw away my IT degree and go back to being a primary producer!"

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Re:what they do... by Sparr0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, its not like potato plants extract anything (nutrients, water, etc) and move it around to form a potato... They just magically appear, spontaneous generation. Thank you mister 1700s.

  2. Only Gold? by MissMarvel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm curious if they did the research to see if this bacteria/fungus works with other heavy metals as well, i.e. Silver, Mercury. If so, it might be possible to adapt this type of process to the removal of heavy metals from soil and drinking water sources.

  3. Ummmm....bad idea economically by tekiegreg · · Score: 1, Insightful

    One of the things about gold that makes it so valuable is it's relative scarcity. If anyone were to start growing gold (yes that's not quite what the article said but...) then the prices would come down due to abundance of supply and pretty soon gold is worthless. Same basic law of supply and demand that is affecting all the IT jobs heading to India, so I'd hope not....

    --
    ...in bed
    1. Re:Ummmm....bad idea economically by geoswan · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Um, if gold were as common as, say, iron, or aluminum(*), don't you think we would still be using it? It would still make beautiful jewelry. It would still be an excellent conductor heat and of electricity.

      (*) Thirteen percent of the Earth's crust.