MessageToEagle.com – What does King Midas have in common with a certain microorganism and breakthroughs in optics, the science of light?
The keyword here is – gold!
King Mida’s Ability To Turn Everything Into Gold
Midas, a legendary king of Phrygia, was famous for having the “golden” touch. He wished that everything he touched would turn into gold.
Unfortunately, his wish was not a blessing, but a curse. The myth of King Midas tells what happens when true happiness is not recognized.
King Midas had everything he could ask for. He lived in a beautiful caste with his daughter and had no worries. But he was obsessed with money. He always wanted more and more. Midas thought that his greatest happiness was provided by gold.
One day the God Dionysus found himself in Phrygia. He was followed by a group of Satyrs and other creatures that were always celebrating and feasting with him. Silenus, one of the Satyrs, entered the sacred Rose garden of Midas and the guards brought the intruder to the King.
Midas recognized the follower of Dionysus and decided not to punish him. God Dionysus was pleased with Midas and his decision not to punish Silenus, thus asked Midas what he wanted the most from his life – in order to return the favor.
Midas said that he wished everything he touched could turn to gold. Although Dionysus warned Midas about the potential dangers of such a wish, Midas insisted on it and Dionysus granted him with the infamous Midas Touch.
Midas was extremely happy to have received the gift. Now, he could suddenly turn everything to gold. However, he soon realized the gift was a curse. He was unable to eat, drink or do anything normally, since everything he touched would turn to gold. Midas started understanding the warnings of Dionysus and the depth of his mistake and greed.
King Midas went to Dionysus, desperate, and begged him to free him from this “curse”. Dionysus told Midas that he had to go and bathe in the River Paktolos (Pactolus) in order to wash away this ability.
Midas had no choice. He went to Paktolos river and washed himself. The Greek myth tells the gold settled in the sand of the river and was carried to another country of the East, Lydia, that became one of the richest countries of the antiquity.
The story about King Midas and his desire for gold is one of the most known beliefs of the Greeks, the short-sighted wish, and the punishment for greed.
Bacteria Can Turn Toxic Chemicals Into Gold
King Midas might have been able to turn everything into gold, but he was not the only one. A certain incredible organism, a metal-tolerant bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans can withstand incredible amounts of toxicity in the process of creating 24-karat gold.
Yes, this amazing organism described in our article also is capable to turn toxic chemicals into gold.
Breakthroughs In Optics And Gold Technology
Scientists from the University of Southampton have found a way of changing the color of the world’s most iconic precious metal – gold.
However, their groundbreaking method is also applicable to other metals such as silver and aluminum.
The technique could be harnessed in a wide range of industries for anything from manufacturing jewellery to making banknotes and documents harder to forge.
“This is the first time the visible color of metal has been changed in this way,” says Professor Nikolay Zheludev, Deputy Director of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, who led the project.
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“The colors of the objects we see all around us are determined by the way light interacts with those objects. For instance, an object that reflects red light but absorbs other wavelengths will appear red to the human eye.
“This is the fundamental principle we have exploited in this project. By embossing metals with patterns only around 100 nanometers across, we’ve found that we can control which wavelengths of light the metal absorbs and which it reflects.”
The precise shape and height or depth of the patterns determine exactly how light behaves when it strikes the metal and therefore what color is created. The technique can be used to produce a wide range of colors on a given metal.
A silver ring, for example, could be decorated with a number of different patterns, making one part of it appear red, another part green and so on.
Metal features with sophisticated optical properties that would be almost impossible to imitate could be incorporated into documents as security features.
“We’ve filed a patent application to cover our work,” Professor Zheludev says, “and we’re currently talking to a number of organizations about taking our breakthrough towards commercialization.”
This breakthrough opens up the prospect of coloring metals without having to coat or chemically treat them. This could deliver valuable economic, environmental and other benefits.
The history of gold begins in remote antiquity. It was as important in ancient times, as it is today.
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