Pollutin-eating GM trees?

[Number Six]

See what you think of this. It sounds interesting. I've never heard of it before.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/04/pollution.eating.plant.ap/index.html

 

[neutrino_cannon]

That's a heck of an idea.

A lot of un-genetically-altered plants, such as cat tails, will remove significant amounts of heavy metals from the soil to begin with.

I do wonder one thing though; couldn't bacteria and trees tolerate high levels of mercury to begin with? I thought mecury compounds attacked the nervous system, so something without a nervous system at all should be able to withstand high Hg levels as a consequence of their structure, and not a particular set of genes?

 

[CBL4]

Some of the mercury is expected to vaporize into the air while most is stored in the tree. After several years of growth, the trees will be cut down and incinerated.
...
Meagher agrees with critics who argue that his solution isn't ideal -- but he says the trees beat the current clean-up method of digging out contaminated sites and dumping the tainted soil in toxic dumps.

I guess this is a good solution because it dilutes the mercury to harmless level but I agree it is not ideal. Is there a safe, stable mercury compound?

This type of solution is a great idea but it will be a tough fight to convince foolish environmentalist (not all - just the fools.) I can just imagine someone chopping down the mercury trees to make some bizarre political statement.

CBL