Silver Investment Up and Other Silver News

Silver investment in three major categories is up so far this year, according to a report highlighted in the latest edition of Silver News.

Silver held in ETFs hit an all-time high this year. Year-on-year through mid-August, 736.9 million ounces of metal were held in silver-backed ETFs. Meanwhile, global mint silver bullion coin sales rose 30% year-on-year through July.

There have also been Strong net-long positioning on COMEX, with net money-managed longs up over 60% since the start of this year.

The latest edition of Silver News also highlights some fascinating technological developments utilizing the white metal and other interesting news related to silver.

• University of Vermont scientists claim to have produced the strongest silver ever — 42% stronger than the previous record — without losing silver’s high electrical conductivity.
• For centuries, spies have written secret messages on slips of paper that they burned or sometimes swallowed to keep information from getting into enemy hands. Now, scientists at Xidian University in Xi’an, China, have used silver to offer a digital version in the form of a memristor — a device that stores information much like a human neural network — that can be dissolved by throwing it into water and erasing all the information it contains.
• A 14-year old student at San Diego’s Mesa Verde Middle School is a finalist in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge with her invention of a spray-on bandage that uses silver particles instead of antibiotics.
• Food storage containers with nanosilver bacterial protection imbedded into the material are not new, but a nanosilver-protected storage container made of food-grade silicone that can be heated in an oven, microwaved and stored in a freezer is new and is the focus of crowdfunder Kickstarter that has so far garnered more than a quarter-million dollars (US) in funding.
• Using a silver catalyst to convert carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fossil-fuel combustion engines is an effective method for producing carbon monoxide, which is a feedstock for useful chemicals such as synthetic fuels and pharmaceuticals.
• Silver-coated bandages are an often-used method to help heal difficult wounds such as diabetic skin ulcers. Scientists at Imbed Biosciences, the University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoff that makes and sells a silver-imbedded bandage known as MicroLyte, is taking it a step further by adding gallium, a chemical element, atomic symbol Ga, which they say enhances the covering’s ability to reduce biofilms on the wound that shield it from antibiotics including the silver itself.