
Bacteria with a metal diet discovered in dirty glassware - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bacteria-metal-diet-dirty-glassware.html
======
_whiteCaps_
'Oily' film on puddles can be caused by iron and manganese reacting bacteria:
[https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/microbes/intro.html](https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/microbes/intro.html)

You can determine the origin by disturbing the film, if it 'shatters', it's
bacterial.

~~~
LoSboccacc
love how the image is a gif that includes the border, the shadow and the
margins, looks like this site has been running along for quite a while (also
because of the center tag) and it's a testament to how simple, good
engineering last for a long time.

~~~
zenexer
I won’t dispute that it probably looks great on a proper monitor, but that
site is painful to use on mobile. The width is fixed, which means that either
the text us illegibly small, or I have to scroll side-to-side to see the
entirety of each line as I read.

~~~
LoSboccacc
the site doesn't have any fixed width in the css and adding in a meta header
identifying it as responsive, it works as it should.

arguably is the user agent assumption that every old site is broken without
giving them a large virtual viewport with a small font that's giving an
unwanted behavior.

------
cptvideo
I had a microbiologist friend who said: "If you can name something, there's a
bacterium that will eat it".

~~~
Uehreka
Sounds like a fun HN comment game, let’s go:

Formaldehyde.

~~~
oseibonsu
R. sphaeroides

[https://news.wisc.edu/microbe-eats-
formaldehyde/#:~:text=Ent...](https://news.wisc.edu/microbe-eats-
formaldehyde/#:~:text=Enter%20R.,for%20more%20than%20two%20decades).

~~~
maze-le
How about: Hydrogen fluoride. I know there are acidophiles but a concentrated
HF solution in water has a H0 of up to -11, surely no membrane (made of
proteins) can survive that?

~~~
dekhn
Dunno about HF specifically but there are bacteria living at extremely low pH
in highly concentrated acids from mine runoff at Iron Mountain Mine.

------
tastyfreeze
Cool! The manganese nodules part reminds me of gold excreting bacteria
bacteria.

[https://www.livescience.com/61804-bacteria-poops-
gold.html](https://www.livescience.com/61804-bacteria-poops-gold.html)

------
jcun4128
I still want to figure out how to make an artificial stomach that digests
plastic and produces electricity. I just imagine building drones that eat the
plastic in the ocean for fuel. Down to the microplastic too eg. mini whales
ha.

------
kanobo
I love unusual discoveries like this. Reminds me of watching the Star Trek TNG
episode about silicon-based lifeforms as a kid and wishing real-life had more
strange discoveries like that.

~~~
mc32
Glass sponges[1]kinda come close?

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexactinellid](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexactinellid)

------
shmerl
This reminded me of fungus that can feed on gamma radiation.

------
em3rgent0rdr
> Leadbetter found the bacteria serendipitously after performing unrelated
> experiments

"Leadbetter" is quite an appropriate name for the researcher. ;)

~~~
logicchains
You might be interested in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism).

------
aliswe
This reminds me of the different fungi that "eat oil spills":

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23869741](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23869741)

And the research done by Paul Stamets (I think?)

EDIT: Why do you think that never took off?

~~~
jagannathtech
>Why do you think that never took off?

Maybe takes a lot of time and no expensive contracts and kickbacks ;)

------
donclark
Can this affect our mouth and gut bacteria?

~~~
DoreenMichele
Probably, but possibly only under the right conditions.

------
WalterBright
Should drop bags of these extremeophiles onto the solar system's moons and
planets.

~~~
gonzo41
Probably more likely we'll find extremophiles like these at those locations.

Also I think there's treaties stopping you from polluting other planets.

~~~
NickNameNick
There are people with the best job title in the world, devoted to stopping
that kind of thing:

Planetary Protection Officers.

~~~
WalterBright
I find it impossible to understand that point of view.

