Nanotube-Excreting Bacteria Allow Mass Production

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."

Comments

arsenic-sulphide?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't that mean that the waste would be arsenic and sulphide? Just what we need, landfills with arsenic and sulphide leaching into ground water.

Re:If they sh*t it, they eat it...

[GroeFaZ]

Every living organism is a special case of chemistry, so if an organism secretes something, that something might also be broken down without help of an organism, so yes, it's possible, but not necessary. Furthermore, should the need arise, I'm sure stuff made from carbon nanotubes can be made resistant to consumption by organisms for its expected lifetime just as for example a wooden ship, or a sheet of paper, or food, or whatever, can.

Re:Bulletin from University of California, Riversi

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is another picture not totally OT.

Re:Swarm

[ScrewMaster]

it's actually a damaging book, in that it actively attempts to hobble a science before it was anywhere near that level of complexity.

Crichton may write what is passed off as "science" fiction, but he's fundamentally anti-technology, anti-progress, and unlike a Clarke or a Heinlein he's not always very careful about working through the numbers to make sure his vision of the future is even remotely probable. I can't stand his stuff for that reason, it's always the same thing. Man reaches for something he doesn't have the wisdom to handle properly, and gets bitchslapped by Mother Nature for overstepping his bounds. It's a common theme running through his books.