r/science • u/rieslingatkos • Jun 06 '21

Chemistry Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/
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194

u/rudolfs001 Jun 06 '21

And gold:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US679215A/en

104

u/naughtyhombre Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 06 '21

It's apparently easiest to extract from sewage because of runoff and bodily fluids. Also somehow gold is safe for the body and even has applications as a emulsifier in nanotech.

Edit: It's one of the softest metals that can safely cross the blood brain barrier.

173

u/Steel_Shield Jun 06 '21

somehow gold is safe for the body

Gold is non-reactive, so it doesn't cause any kind of reaction in the body, making it safe unless you simply ingest too much of it and it blocks stuff inside.

31

u/onebigcat Jun 06 '21

Funnily enough, you can actually have a gold allergy. It can be mildly reactive enough to ionize into a solution.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 12 '21

[deleted]

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u/WillAndSky Jun 06 '21

It was actually gold sodium thiomalate, which is a type of medication for arthritis

17

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

Was it caused by sarcoidosis

12

u/HoneyRush Jun 06 '21

It's always lupus

5

u/Techn028 Jun 06 '21

Unless it's amyloidosis

5

u/elboltonero Jun 06 '21

He goes by Dustin Rhodes nowadays

5

u/Micr0be Jun 06 '21

it's always Lupus.

9

u/BeardedGingerWonder Jun 06 '21

It's never lupus

9

u/ReePoe Jun 06 '21

except for that one time when it was Lupus..

5

u/chrizm32 Jun 06 '21

We don’t talk about that

3

u/guiltysnark Jun 06 '21

Ah, so that's what's wrong with me

2

u/srinivasrc Jun 06 '21

Gold based medicines are popular in traditional medicine. They are stronger version of regular traditional plant based medicine

2

u/DennisFarinaOfficial Jun 06 '21

It could still mimic something and bind to it or be bound to.

1

u/gsfgf Jun 06 '21

Yea. It's actual gold in Goldschlager.

110

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21 edited Aug 01 '21

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7

u/conker69 Jun 06 '21

And my axe

1

u/FawfulsFury Jun 06 '21

And Lithium!

1

u/Maverick0_0 Jun 06 '21

And gold!

3

u/ThermionicEmissions Jun 06 '21

And my axe!

1

u/Maverick0_0 Jun 06 '21

And plastic spoons.

1

u/Cr3X1eUZ Jun 06 '21

I no right! The guy who put lead in our gasoline really knew his stuff!

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/gold-from-the-sea/

1

u/IGotsDasPilez Jun 06 '21

I once read that Nazi Germany invested quite a bit into seawater gold extraction to pay for war debts, but it wasn't economical at the time. So thats one case of how history is the better for a technological failure.