not enough nature for one evening…

by admin on August 18, 2003 · 4 Comments · in Blog

Many of the people on my friend’s list love wild flowers like I do. But, they can serve a greater purpose than being beautiful. There’s an artist, Mel Chin, that has used so-called weeds to remove toxic metals from a neighborhood park that had been left for dead. I really admired that work. Here’s something related to that coming directly from science.

A Taste for Heavy Metal

A Taste for Heavy Metal. Researchers call for model to help us understand plants that hoard heavy metals. Understanding how such ‘hyperaccumulators’ manage metals could help in developing crops to grow on contaminated soils, supplement dietary deficiencies, mop up industrial pollution or even harvest metals from soil.

  • Share/Bookmark
 
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg
  • http://zhenzhi.livejournal.com/ zhenzhi

    that’s fantastic isn’t it! we’ve been researching sewerage treatment using plants for the house in the country we are planning to build next year. plants can do some amazing things.

  • http://www.onajide.com/ admin

    Yes. That is amazing. So are your sky pics. Florida has a multicolored sky like that too. It comes from the dust that blows off the Sahara desert. :-)

  • http://androkles.livejournal.com/ androkles

    That’s a very interesting article. There’s a common wild fern here, Pteris vittata, that probably grows all over the world, including your part. It’s been shown to absorb enormous amounts of arsenic from the soil. I think they were investigating using it commercially.
    The more you find out about nature the more incredible it gets.

  • http://www.onajide.com/ admin

    So true! Finally, this morning I remember the artist’s first name, Mel Chin. Here is his project. I knew about it before I heard him give a lecture on it some yrs ago.