A fluorescence map shows the zinc to be concentrated within the fungal tissue in spots only a few microns in size. No one disputes the need for cleaning up and preserving the environment.
Issues arise over finding the most cost-effective means of doing so.
It is widely acknowledged that a better understanding of how pollutants interact with the environment at a molecular level would greatly benefit efforts in environmental remediation, hazardous and nuclear waste management, sustainable agriculture, global climate change, and even human health and ecological risk assessment. ALS photons are produced at energies and wavelengths made to order for investigating the most important elements in the Earth's crust and atmosphere. The importance of this fact to environmental research is currently being demonstrated in several on-going experiments. In one study, scientists have shown that green rust, a harmless natural oxide of iron common to many soils, can chemically convert a hazardous form of the mineral selenium into a form that is safe to humans and wildlife. This new knowledge may lead to an alternative way to counteract abnormally high and potentially lethal concentrations of selenium and other trace contaminants in soils and sediments.