Scientists Have Discovered an Australian Fungus That Produces 'Real Gold'
2 Guptos 4 5/3/2025, 3:13:59 AM techoreon.com ↗
Comments (4)
femto · 15h ago
The article tries hard to give the impression that the fungus is transmuting other elements into gold. The real story is that the fungus is chemically reacting with and concentrating trace amounts of gold in the environment. Read the paper that others have linked to if you're interested, but don't waste your time on the article.
beardyw · 13h ago
Yes, I dropped out of chemistry early on, but even I smelt a rat. Stupid clickbait.
gnabgib · 15h ago
(2019) Open access paper [Evidence for fungi and gold redox interaction under Earth surface conditions](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10006-5)
Guptos · 15h ago
Scientists have discovered that the common fungus Fusarium oxysporum can 'convert certain metals into gold'. In a study led by CSIRO researcher Tsing Bohu, the fungus was mixed with meteorite dust and surprisingly transformed its minerals into tiny gold particles.