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The plate is sensitized with the vapors of iodine and then bromine in an enclosed box, transferred to the camera, exposed, returned to the vapor chamber to be cleaned of the light-sensitive salts, toned with gold chloride, and then sealed behind glass to protect the image and prevent the silver from tarnishing.

Take a solution of gold chloride, a compound toxic to most forms of life.

Their installation, called The Great Work of the Metal Lover, features C. metallidurans bacteria producing 24-carat gold from a solution of gold chloride in front of a live audience.

“Marine water is known to be the richest source of gold in nature” in the form of gold chloride, says Anirban Roy Choudhury, a specialist in fermentation technology at India's Institute of Microbial Technology in Chandigarh.

Reith's team has also developed a method based on high-performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled mass spectrometry to measure the complexed forms — such as gold chloride or gold thiosulphate — in which gold exists in aqueous solutions.