Sunday, October 12, 2008

Heavy Metal Superworms

I found this fascinating article on National Geographic and had to share. Apparently some worms in merry olde England have adapted to be able to eat heavy metals. They thrive in toxic soil in polluted industrial sites. It seems that they consume the heavy metals and secrete a slightly less toxic version of the metals which plants are then able to extract from the soil.

The article did not mention, or perhaps it did and I forgot already, how long it takes worms to clean up a toxic waste site, but it's certainly got to be cheaper than sending a team of guys in haz-mat suits out to take care of business. I don't know if they have adapted to radiation or not yet, but I think we need to get a bunch of them out to Hanford and set them loose. Of course this may not be the best idea I've ever had. If science fiction has ever taught me anything, it's that radiation will turn them into even more super mutant worms which will eventually destroy humanity. Regardless, it's a pretty interesting read.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the super mutant worm idea over in Hanford. I'm not sure worms would survive there. Radiation mutant or not. I mean I'm not sure Godzilla would survive there either. Both do like water, and we know the reason the US Gov't located the A-bomb building program out there cause nothing grows there but scrub brush....

Unknown said...

Maybe that's how Dune got started.