But that's not the aspect of these plants that scientists are most curious about. It seems that water hyacinths not only suck the hazardous metals out of water but that the plants can transform them from a quite toxic form to a more benign one. The hyacinth absorbs a toxic form of chromium known to cause cancer and mutations in humans and other living organisms and transforms it into a less toxic one. The scientists have found that other plants from the mustard family and rabbit-foot grass have similar abilities. What we want to do is find the plants that do it best, then grow them to do the work for us.
Synchrotron radiation is one tool in learning which plants do it best.
Beyond that, Bargar said, geneticists and botanists can work together to engineer plants that could perform these transformations even more efficiently, just as researchers years ago developed tastier strains of sweet corn or showier blooms. The Department of the Interior , which oversees federal lands, is particularly interested in research on remediation of toxic elements like uranium, neptunium, plutonium and strontium conducted at a government weapons storage dump in Hanford, Washington. At SSRL, researchers can identify a contaminant from a very small sample and determine its concentrations. From there, strategies can be devised for rendering it harmless or for storing it safely. It's the power of synchrotron.