Microbe and Machine Merged to Create First 'Cellborg'

[tocqueville]

Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
2 hours, 6 minutes ago


Fully merging microbe and machine for the first time, scientists have created gold-plated bacteria that can sense humidity.

The breakthrough is the first "cellborg" in what might become an array of devices that could sense dangerous gases or other hazardous substances.

The bioelectronic device swells and contracts in response to how much water vapor is in the air. It’s called a cellborg humidity sensor, and it is at least four times more sensitive than those that are solely electronic. It even works even when its biological parts are long dead.

How it was made : Scientists first coated a silicon chip with a layer of live Bacillus cereus bacteria. Some of the long, rod-shaped microbes lodged between two etched electrodes on the chip’s surface, forming a bridge. The chip was then washed in a solution containing tiny gold particles, each one about 30 nanometers across.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20051027/sc_space/microbeandmachinemergedtocreatefirstcellborg

[ixion]

1. resistance is futile

all will be assimilated.

[tocqueville]

3. next step is to use freepers

but they have problems with the amount of biological substance in their brains...

[ret5hd]

4. all your bacteria are belong to us.

[damntexdem]

7. No, resistance is ...

important to the functioning of the cellborg. ;-)

[drb]

2. Hah! I scoff at mechanical bacteria! We have...

...Dick Cheney!!

[Fridays Child]

5. Do cellborgs have rights?

How much are they paid?

What are their working conditions?

Do they get time off when their mitochondrial DNA is under the weather or when new cells are born into their families?

Are there laws against making cells work, after they're dead?

What is the right wing's position on cellborg abortion?

[unpossibles]

6. cool n/t