Neha's Bacterial Jewellery

Pedomicrobium- Inorganic isn't the only gold!

What?

Pedomicrobium atracts gold dissolved in groundwater.Hence, under a microscope it appears as gold-plated bacteria, which we can use to:

1.Create jewellery

2.Some kind of form-based ornamentation

3.A Bacterial gold sculpture

How?

When a bacteria called Pedomicrobium lives in water rich in dissolved minerals, it will actually build up layers of iron or manganese oxide around itself.

Usually gold blocks the bacterial pores and leads to its death. However, Pedomicrobium reproduces by budding. It stretches out a narrow stalk which rises above the gilded cage closing around the parent bacteria. This narrow tube then opens up (at the end) to make a new bacteria. So new baby bacteria are continually being born just on the outside of an expanding ball of golden death.

This process takes a full year to take place, but research says it can be sped up using Genetic Engineering.

We will need to artificially reproduce an aquatic environment which is rich in the requisite dissolved minerals.