Bionic Bacteria: Gold nanoparticles make gadgets of living microbes

Blurring the boundaries between biology and the realm of electromechanical machinery, technologists have already used components of the natural world such as DNA to make robots. They’ve also coaxed living nerve cells to grow on a microchip, allowing neuroscientists to eavesdrop on cell-to-cell signaling (SN: 10/6/01, p.