By Sarah Webb
Bacteria found lurking in the bowels of an abandoned Wisconsin mine might have a role in cleaning up toxic metals. A new study shows that these bacteria make compounds that cement minute metallic particles into balls that naturally drop out of contaminated water.
As part of their metabolic cycles, certain bacteria that live in watery, oxygenfree environments take up one type of sulfur-containing chemical, a sulfate, and transform it into another type, a sulfide, that they then release. The sulfide binds to metals dissolved in water to form nanoparticles.