A LIVING semiconductor that could sniff out poison gas in a bio-terrorist attack has been accidentally discovered by researchers in the US and Northern Ireland. The discovery followed the scientists' failure to eliminate some particularly persistant bacteria from computer chip production lines.
The researchers had tried everything to destroy the microbes, from ultraviolet light to powerful oxidants. But the bacteria survived every attempt.
"The micro-organisms were protecting themselves against our heroic measures to kill them," says biophysicist Robert Baier, director of the Center for Biosurfaces at the State University of New York in Buffalo.
When microchips are cleaned with ultra-pure water, the water can dissolve some semiconducting materials, such as germanium oxide, which can then crystallise around the bacteria. The bacteria survive extremely well inside their crystal homes, impervious to the best human efforts to eradicate them. But the problem has a silver lining. The microbes have created a "living ...
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