by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n
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A new technique based on filtering water during evaporation could provide an effective solution to the problem of soil contamination<\/strong>, according to a group of researchers at the University of South Australia<\/strong>. “Plants naturally draw mineral components out of the soil when they move water from their roots into their stems, leaves and flowers, where those mineral components are trapped,” explained<\/a> Gary Owens<\/strong>, one of the researchers involved in the study along with colleagues from the same university Pan Wu, Xuan Wu, Yida Wang and Haolan Xu.<\/p>\n Plants, in other words, “can be used to extract contaminants, but the process is very, very slow<\/strong>, often taking multiple growing seasons, particularly in heavily contaminated situations, where the soil toxicity means the plants struggle to grow and often die.” For that reason, the authors “have created a system that mimics this process \u2013 a form of biomimetic plant \u2013 but one that does so at a much faster rate and without any of the problems caused by toxicity.”<\/p>\n