Fungi lock depleted uranium out of harm’s way
An unexpected ally in the battle against uranium contaminated war zones: common backyard fungi.
A research team in Scotland has established that common fungi can grow on and chemically lock away the offending uranium. As their hyphal filaments sprawled across fragments of depleted uranium, the tubules gradually became coated in a yellowy mineral. This, it turned out, locked the uranium into a chemical form inaccessible to biological organisms, and unlikely to dissolve into surface waters.
