DrDNA

What you have described seems to be 'Sterno' Canned Heat (even generic brands are called Sterno). Sterno is made from ethanol, methanol, water and an oxide gelling agent Methanol is only added to make it too toxic to drink (denature). I found this about making your own.......... Make Your Own Gelled Alcohol Fuel - Canned Heat Extreme do it yourselfers can make their own gelled fuel at home with by mixing alcohol and calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4). The following instructions and measurements are from the Montville High School Science Departmental. 1. Add 25g of crushed chalk or egg shells (calcium carbonate-CaCO3) to 100ml of vinegar (water and acetic acid - CH3CO2H) and stir for about 5 minutes. This should produce carbon dioxide (CO2), calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4) and water (H2O) plus leave you with some left over chalk (CaCO3). If you are guessing on how much chalk to add, just make sure that there is a little extra after 5 minutes of stirring. 2. Remove the excess chalk by filtering your mix through some filter paper (coffee filter or napkin can be used). Set a funnel in a jar, place your filter in it and pour your suspension through it. 3. Mark the level of your solution in its container and allow your solution to evaporate off about half that volume to remove the excess water. Place your solution in an oven set on low heat or place it out in the sun to dry. If you went to far - just add the missing water. Note - if you like, you can dry out your solution completely and store the remaining dried calcium acetate for future use. 4. If your solution isn't already in the container you want your gel in, then pour it in there now. 5. Add 30ml of alcohol (ethanol, methanol, or isopropanol) to your solution and watch the gel form. Do not stir. 6. Once the reaction in complete, pour off any extra fuel. http://zenstoves.net/Sterno.htm

Hi, I'm DrDNA and it's good to be back with those that are wise in the ways of science after a 10-12 month long hiatus. They don't allow internet cables and electrical cords where I was. I'll be here until they discover that I'm missing again.

Perhaps the answer you seek lies within your own question, Weedhopper. .........or perhaps the Evangelicals got it right.

then you can just say it is anything that you want it to be....an alien life form for that matter.

Yes but 0.5 cm is way too big for bacteria or protista spores. from wikip: Quote. "Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and some protozoans." ........................ "The term spore may also refer to the dormant stage of some bacteria or archaea; however these are more correctly known as endospores and are not truly spores in the sense discussed in this article. The term can also be loosely applied to some animal resting stages. Fungi that produce spores are known as sporogenous, and those that do not are asporogenous." End Quote. So that leaves fungi (including molds I think) and plants. Since it was in the dark, perhaps you can eleminate plants. It think it could be a fungus or a mold. But molds usually do not have the pattern. Looks to me like Snail could be right. I vote fungus also.

I'm confused by your pic but it doesn't look "horrible"...... Scale of the features? Where is the "stalk" you have mentioned in your pic? Are each of those things in your pic independent....each ball connected to a "stalk" or is there a stalk somewhere that connects these? Not dandilion or cotton tree?

Hi Rote. Welcome!

You would? I think it's all relative. They are both pretty nasty. Mercury is banned from most places nowadays...but semiconductor sites use HF by the drumloads every day. HF will attack the Ca in your bones and the Ca in rest of your body.....causing havoc. Mercury is a potent neorotoxin..... Pick your posion.......use caution.

Perhaps there is some type of affinity chromatography (or similar) system available, or you can make one.....thiols and disulfides stick to gold but not to glass (nor mica) and thiolated/disulfide silanes (silanes are used to derivatize affinity supports) are readily available, so the affinity supports are either available or they would certainly not be to difficult to make. After the functionalized support is in hand, flow the mixture over the support and the gold should stick while the rest of the stuff flows right over it.....IF the gold particles are small enough to bind tightly to the support. Then the gold should come off the thiols with mild denaturing conditions. It would be worth a quick google search.... On the other hand, it just occured to me.......mica is negatively charged (SiO- on the surface), so in an electrical field, the mica should be attracted to the postive electrode. But gold should not be attracted to either electrode.......Sort of like electrophoresis.......this might be easier

Point well taken. However, not to minimize dangers associated with mercury poisoning, please note that methyl mercury is NOT elemental mercury. Methyl merc is considered to be the form of mercury most easily bioaccumulated. Also, mercury (and methyl merc) is known to easily penetrate latex, so they should not have been used in the situation you mention. Latex gloves were never intended for chemical lab use and shouldn't even be there. One should NEVER use them as the only means of protection in a chem lab. They were developed for routine biological/clinical (ie, aqueous liquid only) work. Nitril gloves are known to be a better option for work with mercury (and many other chemicals). I agree with you. The best protection is knowledge (and proper equipment).

Excuse me, but can't you see that we are trying to win a Rube Goldberg contest here!

Personally, I think HF is your best bet.....happens every day in the semiconductor industry. But have you thought of putting them in a regular test tube with water and then trying to separate with a pasture pipette? The "mica sand", since is less dense, should be pulled into the pipette much easier than the gold, much like a centrifuge.... Then I think you may be left with mercury, which is still used to purify gold from ore..... If you don't want to mess with mercury...TOXIC!!...ignore the following.... If there is still some impurites left (I'm sure there are) cover the concentrates with water. Add one tablespoon of household lye to the concentrates and swirl it around for several minutes. This will remove surface impurities such as dirt and oils from the gold. Pour off the lye laden water. Add fresh water and add one ounce of mercury. *** WARNING!!! WHEN USING LYE YOU SHOULD WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND RUBBER GLOVES TO AVOID GETTING ANY IN YOUR EYES OR ON YOUR SKIN. WHEN USING MERCURY, USE THE SAME PRECAUTIONS. IN BOTH CASES DO NOT INHALE ANY OF THE FUMES!!! ALWAYS WORK OUTSIDE AND UPWIND. Slowly swirl the contents with the mercury. As the mercury goes around the pan it will pick up all the finest gold in the pan. The more gold there is the stiffer the mercury becomes. Once you have all the gold gathered, pan or suck off the sands (or use a magnet in a plastic baggie to retrieve black sands), leaving only the gold laden mercury and free mercury. The free mercury will roll around easily where the gold laden mercury is stiff and does not toll well. Place your mercury container INSIDE another gold pan and pour off the free mercury into the container. Using another pan keeps it from spilling out onto the floor or ground. If you spill mercury on the floor or God forbid, the living room carpet, you will be inhaling evaporating fumes for years! Once you have a stiff ball of gold laden mercury in the plastic pan flush it out into a glass measuring cup. To this add a few drops of nitric acid Keep adding nitric acid until you get a bubbling or fizzing action from the mercury. !!! DO NOT BREATH THE FUMES !!! The acid will dissolve the mercury as well as any trace silver. After awhile the fizzing stops and at the bottom of your cup is a bronze colored metallic looking blob.... It's GOLD! You can recover your mercury from the nitric acid by placing a flat copper bar or copper sheet into the acid and letting it set overnight. The next day the mercury will have come out of solution and attached itself to the copper now you can scrape the mercury from the copper and put it back into your storage container. Carefully pour off the remaining liquid and neutralize the acid with baking soda, a little at a time until you get no reaction from the acid and soda. Gently rinse the gold in the cup with fresh water avoiding hard sprays that could rinse away your gold. Pour off the water and let dry. The remainder is your pure gold! (actually 95% - -98% pure) http://www.learngoldprospecting.com/index.cfm?var_file=separate-gold-concentrates.htm