WARNING: TOXIC, Worms At Lunch

Industrial waste is a problem in many places all over the world. The problem is the waste is toxic, usually made up of many heavy metals. It is very hard to cleanse the soil of heavy metals making the soil conditions unsuitable for many forms of life. However, scientist in the UK have discovered new "superworms" that cannot only survive in polluted industrial lands, but also can eat the toxic heavy metals and turn it into a less harmful form. Once the worms turn the heavy metals into a less harmful form, plants can take up the metals more easily and the plants could be harvested leaving the soil much cleaner.

Scientist found these worms in toxic sites in Wales, and southwest England. The worms can eat lead, zinc, arsenic and copper in harmful toxic forms. One of the lead eating worms found in Wales is found to be a newly evolved species and the two other "superworms" discovered in England are also believed to be a new species. To test these newly evolved worms, scientist used X rays to follow the tiny metal particles through the worms. Apparently the worms create a special protein which makes the metals less dangerous. Leading research scientist Mark Hodson says that the protein "wraps up the metal and keeps it inert and safe so it doesn't interact with the earthworms." However, the toxicity of the metals isn't yet known, because the protein wrap will degrade over time. These worms have evolved into new species driven by the harmful heavy metals in the environments. Any other earth worms would die in this waste but over a relatively short time these "superworms" evolved to not only live in the toxic waste but also eat it.


news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081007-super-worms.html

Posted by Alex Pavidapha

Update 10/14/08: I received several questions about the actual process of making the toxic metals less harmful. Each of the different worms use a protein to make the dangerous metals harmless. They aren't necessarily the same protein, but the function of the proteins seems to be very similar. In regards to the questions about what it means when it says new species, the worms evolved separately in different places and they built up enough differences to be considered separate species. And in the Figure above the top worm is the reference, or an ordinary earth-worm, and the bottom three are each from different toxic locations, two of which were named.