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They could be useful for soil remediation here on Earth as well.
by ch4s3 6y ago
They could be useful for soil remediation here on Earth as well.
- hengri 6y agoHow does it work? I figured you'd have to somehow dispose them in a way such that it doesn't reenter the biosphere.
- jschwartzi 6y agoThe beauty of it is that even as the metals become concentrated in the plants they're removed from the biosphere, so all you have to do is process the plants, extract the metals the same way you would from an ore, and dispose of the remains. A valuable ore may only contain a few percent of the precious metal with the rest being silicon, carbon, or other base elements.
- technotony 6y agoYes, it's called 'biomining' and there have been several startups working to engineer organisms to do this. eg Universal Biomining working on copper (with bacteria) and a team at University of Washington who took an enzyme from rat's livers and put it in a plant to remove VOC's from the air (successfully!)!
- Zenst 6y agoYes, rice growing is good for drawing out arsenic from the soil. Actually measuring what tree's have drawn up from the ground has been used by those looking for gold to access an area - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2213033-a-company-has-used-trees-to-find-gold-deep-underground-in-australia/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2213033-a-company-has-u...
- washadjeffmad 6y agoLook into phytoremediation. It's already being used.