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Microbes in Gowanus teach lessons on fighting industrial pollution

Microbes in Gowanus teach lessons on fighting industrial pollution

2 comments

·May 16, 2025
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fred_is_fred

Interesting story but so light on details, the linked PopSci and journal articles are more in depth. One thing that isn't clear is how exactly microbes remediate heavy metals, are they in a form that's no longer harmful? Cadmium is still cadmium after running it through some bacteria.

owenversteeg

From what I can tell, the heavy metals are in some cases stressors to the microbes, which then develop resistance mechanism such as chelation, and the chelated heavy metals are then both less dangerous and also easier to remove from the environment.