Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nanotube-Excreting Bacteria Allow Mass Production

Posted by Zonk on from the building-tech-from-the-ground-up dept.

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Engineers at the University of California, Riverside have found semiconducting nanotubes produced by living bacteria — a discovery that could help in the creation of a new generation of nanoelectronic devices. This is the first time nanotubes have been shown to be produced by biological rather than chemical means. In a process that is not yet fully understood, the bacterium secretes polysacarides that seem to produce the template for the arsenic-sulfide nanotubes. These nanotubes behave as metals with electrical and photoconductive properties useful in nanoelectronics. The article abstract is available from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

5 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. more like a series of tubes by User+956 · · Score: 3, Funny

    In a process that is not yet fully understood, the bacterium secretes polysacarides that seem to produce the template for the arsenic-sulfide nanotubes.

    Yes, well, at least they've been proven to not be a truck.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  2. Awesome... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    A new process to create a multi-core CPU and beer at the same time!

  3. Owwie! by mbstone · · Score: 4, Funny

    It must really hurt to excrete a nanotube. Maybe some nanoprunes would help.

  4. Re:If they sh*t it, they eat it... by hyades1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This phenomenon is well-known, and has frequently been described in scientific literature under the term "Politicojournalistivorism".

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  5. Arsenic sulfide? by perbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is just me, or is there irony in the fact that the nanopoop is AsS?