Money May Not Grow ON Trees, But it Can Grow IN Them

Gold, Au on the periodic table of elements and the shiny metal that holds her diamond in place on her delicate little finger. Gold has been used to back our financial system, it has been used as a luxury item in trade for millennia, in more recent years it has been discovered to have medicinal properties! (You can read more about that in my past blog entry about Gold Nanoparticles here.)But the reality of gold is that like many other minerals and natural resources, the quantity of it is finite, meaning eventually, we aren’t going to find anymore.

For a long time it seemed that concern was quickly coming upon us with agencies like Cash 4 Gold springing up on every corner and commercials for jewelry trade-ins airing day in day out, it seemed everyone was desperate to get their hands on this miracle metal. But that may now be a thing of the past…for the time being anyway.

Today at To Infinity…and In Theory we’re going to talk about the prospects of prospecting gold from Eucalyptus trees. The golden goose may soon become the golden Koala. Let’s start by heading over to Australia to see exactly how scientists are harvesting their bumper crops of money trees.

I Got a Golden Ticket! …Oh Wait, Just a Leaf

Know what that is? That’s the cross section of a Eucalyptus leaf infused with gold particles. The question is, how in the heck did they get there? It’s quite simple really, and gold isn’t the only precious metal that gets pulled into foliage. The answer lies in the base of the tree where it all begins. The roots.

In the case of the Eucalyptus trees we’re talking about right now it turns out there was a giant gold deposit about 100 feet below the surface. What happened is some of the gold was flaking off and working its way up through the soil. At the same time as the tree grew the roots were reaching deeper down into the crust. When the root system of the tree meets the flaking gold particles in the soil it was sucked in along with nutrients and, like fat in the human body, it became lodged in the leaves of the tree.

“Finding such high concentrations of gold in the foliage of this tree growing over a gold deposit buried beneath 35 meters of weathered rock was a complete surprise,” said Melvyn Lintern, a geochemist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). But what a pleasant surprise this was, and one that opened a door to a new way of prospecting. Taking samples of leaves was much more eco-friendly than the other methods of searching for deposits of gold.

But what you may find most amazing of all is this discovery isn’t brand new. Like everything else it seems to take us way longer than we should to adopt a new way of thinking. This method of prospecting has been around for centuries! So why wasn’t it being employed before now?

There Be Gold in Them Hills…Err, Trees

The process of using flora to search for mineral and ore deposits is known as Biogeochemical or Geobotanical Prospecting. These are two very different processes and fields of study that we will discuss in further detail later. But first, let’s talk about the early days of these techniques.

Turns out the Chinese invented this method of ore hunting in 5^th century B.C. when they began noticing that certain plants grew only in areas where there were deposits. Perhaps the most notable of these specialized plants is the Copper Flower, which grows only over copper and nickel deposits in Africa.

See it started as an agricultural thing. They were looking for suitable areas of land to grow their crops and feed. Sometimes though, the plants would not take to the soil and just die. When all other possibilities (poor farming, environmental weather factors, predation) were rooted out they called in the scientists. That was when they discovered something that surprised them. Underneath a lot of the areas where crops wouldn’t grow were large mineral and precious ore deposits.

This warranted more observation, something the people of China were (and still are) very good at. They noticed that in areas where jade deposits were located, the branches of trees would droop significantly. What was happening is pieces of the mineral were being pulled up through the root system and weighing the branches down. They also began to note that when certain flowers were burned the ash was high in contents of Zinc, some even going so far as being 16%! Thus, Geobotanical Prospecting was born.

They began noticing that the stalks of some plants were yellow in certain varieties instead of green. This became an indicator that copper was abundant below. If the leaves of some plants were green but the stalks were red it meant there was a lead deposit beneath it. Considering these were the days before portable electronics like metal detectors, this new no-fail method seemed to be working pretty well.

However it wasn’t exactly a “no-fail” method as it didn’t involve the scientific process and it’s likely that some of the research in modern times would be discredited. After all, it wasn’t until 1421 that a Chinese author proved certain metals could be extracted from these plants in the book Precious Secrets of the Realm of the Keng and Hsin (symbols of metals and minerals). But all things considered, this was still a unique and quite possibly a lucrative method for would-be prospectors the world over.

So why are we just hearing about this now? While this method has been known about since ancient Chinese times it wasn’t widely researched or even written about in the West until around the 18^th century. Why? Because gold was still readily available at the time all over the world trapped within the Earth and searching for gold deposits wasn’t quite the difficult task it is today. But as reserves began drying up it was time to look for new ways to skin the proverbial cat.

The Western Seeds of Geobotany Take Root

North America didn’t really get into the Geobotanical or biogeochemical fields until just a few decades ago. However you could say biogeochemistry began to rear its head around the mid-nineteenth century. In 1841 Russian geologist Karpinsky proposed that when drawing a parallel between plant life and the geological substrate the flora took root in that the entire species of that plant needed to be taken into account as a whole. Let me give an example.

Say you have a green three leaf clover growing in your backyard. Since there is no mineral deposit underneath it, that clover grows naturally, normal coloration and no deformities. That same species of clover is found growing wild in someone else’s backyard in Japan. After testing it, everyone is satisfied it is the same species, however, this clover is red. It’s later discovered a large copper deposit is underneath that patch of clovers and when the test Japanese clovers are burned the ash content is high in copper content.

While green clovers and red clovers could exist the above is just a hypothetical example to put it in perspective.

Now we flash forward to the 1920s, still in Russia. Following the example of Karpinksy and his proposal, a scientist named S.P. Aleksandrov noticed that plants outside of an ore zone were high in concentrations of Vanadium, Radium, and Uranium when their ashes were analyzed. Guess what they found beneath the plants? I’ll give you a hint, it was yellow-cake and it wasn’t a Twinkie.

Soon after this discovery the first Biogeochemistry lab was constructed in the USSR and the search for ore, minerals, and precious metals began by analyzing the flora. America wouldn’t make a contribution to this field until the late 1980’s.

It’s important to note that there are two key differences between Biogeochemistry and Geobotanical prospecting. Biogeochemical prospecting involves digging into the relationship of plants and animals to the chemical structure of their environment. In other words, the same species of tree in one area of the world may have different chemicals or elements trapped within it due to the composition of its soil.

Geobotany is the study of plants and their relationship to the environment. It studies the effect has on the environment, not the effect the environment has on the plant. Only time will tell if either of these methods prove to be fruitful for further exploration in prospecting. One thing however is quite certain. Money may not grow on trees. But it certainly can grow in them.

-       Ryan Sanders

Thanks for reading! Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days, there’s a wicked flu going around and I’ve been laid up in bed recovering but the blog is back now! If you would like to know more about any of the things we talked about above today you can by following any of the links available below. Happy learning everyone!

-       Methodsof prospecting (past and present)

-       PopularScience article on Eucalyptus trees found with gold

-       Blogentry by user Nitish Priyadarshi about Uranium prospecting

The Gold (Nanoparticle) Rush of '09 (Cancer's Worst Nightmare)

From Alchemy to Augmentation

There is a common misunderstanding when people talk about Alchemy. The tendency is to think of it as the ancient art of turning iron and lead into precious metals like gold and silver. The reality is that Alchemy is the closest the ancients ever came to understanding how chemistry works.

Ancient Egypt is said to be the birthplace of Alchemy. At its core, alchemy used chemical elements which we now understand much better, but in those times, it looked like black magic. Think about it, you just dropped a chunk of rock into a bucket, added some chemicals, and next thing you know it separated the gold and the silver from it. Suddenly you’re a sorcerer! That’s some cool stuff!

See, there’s this big rock, called the Emerald Tablet, located in Egypt, thought to be written by the Greek God Hermes himself, and translated by many brilliant minds over the centuries (Including Isaac Newton who, while he wasn’t solving how the universe works, was trying to decipher a 36,000 year old tablet!) that is said to contain the secrets to arts of alchemy itself. There are dozens of translations and the reality is, there is no way of knowing if any of them are correct.

Plato, Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, even Napoleon Bonaparte was known to have an obsession with this dark art. So why was alchemy so enticing to these men? Probably because they were men who couldn’t just sit around when there were mysteries to solve. And this tablet was one of their greatest mysteries of all.

Alchemy works on a system of the number seven. Why this is so important, I do not know as I don’t fully understand alchemy entirely but I do know the “Tria Prima” was added to the basic elements to keep with this scheme. Sulfur, Mercury, Salt, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Sulfur, Mercury, and salt are considered the Tria Prima (The Three Primes). Sulfur represents the omnipresent spirit of life, mercury is the fluid connection between the high and the low, and salt is the base matter.

There are also seven primary metals that correspond with seven of the planets in our solar system (well six of them anyway…) each one of these metals has an element and an astrological symbol that corresponds with them as well. All of these things combine into the art of the alchemist. They essentially united Astrology with Chemistry and Earth Science because there was no understanding of the separation back then.

The seven primary metals and their celestial bodies are:

1.    Gold – Sun

2.    Silver – Moon (not a planet!)

3.    Copper – Venus

4.    Iron – Mars

5.    Tin – Jupiter

6.    Mercury – Mercury (duh…)

7.    Lead – Saturn

Notice that gold is on top? It’s a pretty important element.

On top of the seven metals there are seven processes associated with these as well. The first step is Calcination, the second is Dissolution, third process is Separation, Conjunction is fourth, the fifth is Fermentation, then Distillation, followed by Coagulation. (Starting to sound a little more like chemistry?)

There is evidence of this in 4^th century Rome as well, in the form of dichroic glass. What is dichroic glass you ask? Its glass that has small particles of gold added to it which makes visual effects of color changing when light passes through it.

So after all that it brings me to what we’re going to discuss today. Gold, on a nanoscale. I know what you’re saying, “If we’re just going to talk about nanoparticles then why are you telling me all this crap about ancient sorcery?” Well because in order to understand what happened to lead us here entirely, it helps to know a little bit about what these scientists were actually trying to accomplish versus what they did.

The Lycurgus cup was thought to have been made accidentally. While the artisan was painstakingly grinding the glass down to complement the metal rim, it’s likely some gold and silver dust contaminated the glass, creating the stunning visual effect it’s known for. I know what you’re saying now too, “Gold? Uh, dude? That’s red…” Yep, sure is. Red as a baboon’s booty.

See when gold particles are broke down to the nanoscale they refract light differently from when they are in a bar or coin format. When they are broken down to one of their smallest usable forms and suspended in a colloidal solution (water basically) they turn red. As they clump together they start to turn blue. Remember that, because that’s going to be important soon.

Before we get to that however, let’s talk about how we make GNPs (Gold Nanoparticles).

Paracelsus and Faraday

In the 16^th century there was a man named Paracelsus. He was a physician who didn’t believe in following the texts of the ancients but preferred to observe in the here and now. His medical approach is still taught today. He was a botanist and an astrologer. Psychology also credits him with being its father, as it’s noted he was one of the first to observe the afflictions rooted in mental illness.

But perhaps what’s more important for us here today is his alchemy. While dabbling with the ancient arts he managed to synthesize and document the first historical evidence of potable gold! Nowadays we would call this solution Colloidal Gold, or Nanoparticles. What he called it was “Aurium Potabile”, what it was nicknamed was the elixir of life.

This process, which had already been used for staining glass, was now discovered to have medicinal properties!

Enter, Michael Faraday.

In the 19^th century was a young self-educated man named Michael Faraday. He would go on to discover electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. He’d invent the dynamo, and even found the Christmas lectures! But first, he had to assist another chemist named Humphry Davy.

While working with Davy he discovered two new compounds of Chlorine. Not too shabby for a man that basically taught himself everything he knew through watching others and reading in his spare time. It was this work, which in 1847, would lead him to an incredible “Eureka!” moment. While experimenting with Paracelsus’ work he discovered the optical properties of gold particles (the change from red to blue and why they were doing this).

That was considered to be the birthplace of Nanoscience as it was the first documented quantum-level observation of its type. But let’s face it, Paracelsus really deserves some of the credit. For once, snake oil salesmen peddled something of value.

A Small Fortune

The first image above is of the atomic structure of the gold nanoparticles. The one below shows how the gold fuses to organic compounds. The second image is very important because it leads me to our next discussion. What is the use of GNPs?

With crazy advances in genetics and Faraday’s discovery of their optical properties, scientists are now using these tiny precious particles to detect cancer and genetic defect markers in human beings. Depending on their size and synthesis properties, GNPs have a variety of uses, spanning from cancer detection and antibody delivery, to Cystic Fibrosis gene markers in an embryo’s DNA.

What happens is that these particles form bonds with the surface structure of the cells that cause these illnesses. When that happens the GNPs clump together on that marker; as the particles clump together the mass increases causing light to refract differently. The end result is a change in the spectrum of color we observe from red to blue. Depending on what they’re testing for, when this color change occurs, it shows them the offender is present.

It’s still a subject under much study and research, but the future of GNPs is certain. They are here to stay. The use of these makes cancer scanning more affordable and creates an earlier detection method. It also requires less invasive procedures and may eventually replace the use of deadly carcinogens (Such as radio/chemo therapy) in order to kill the cancer cells.

Coupled with other nanotechnology we could witness the end of Cancer in my generation’s lifetime. I don’t know about you, but that is maybe one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.

Stay Golden Ponyboy

Gold may be responsible for our Nation’s eventual economic collapse (that and greed of course) but it may also be our savior as well. We talked a little bit about its medical uses and what makes it so much more practical to use because of its optical qualities. But it has other uses as well, before it became cancer’s number one enemy, the ancients had other uses for this incredible substance.

We mentioned the Lycurgus cup. When GNPs were added in the form of tiny specks to the molten glass mixture it changed the optical refractory qualities. We also talked about why they did this, as they bond together and gain more mass it diffuses light differently. So what other uses does this have besides tableware and pretty Church windows?

John Herschel discovered it was useful in photography! Aside from coining the terms positive and negative, he also invented the cyanotype (using cyanide mixtures in print development) which was the precursor the blueprint. But let’s talk about printing with the gold, or Chrysotype.

In 1841 a photographer named Talbot discovered the effects of printing using silver. In 1842 John Herschel discovered that gold could be used as well. It was unclear back then which light-sensitive metal would win out in the end but it certainly set the stage. Printing with gold is still around today, although they use mixtures now, as the closer you approach to 100% gold the lower quality results.

There are many qualities about this substance still unknown and many applications we probably have yet to discover. With the properties of colloidal gold, gold nanoparticles have applications in various fields, including electron microscopy, electronics, nanotechnology and materials science. Only time will tell what all we can actually do with these cool micro particles.

In the meantime, stay golden.

-Ryan Sanders

If you want to read more about Gold Nanoparticles, follow any of the links below, and as always, feel free to share this around! Thanks for reading, happy learning guys!

-       Wikipedia entry on Michael Faraday

-       An article explaining Paracelsus’ connection to alchemy

-       Lecture on Nanotechnology and GNPs

-       “How Stuff Works” article on GNPs

-       History on printing processes

-       Documentary on Alchemy