08/29/2026
Uranium contamination is one of the hardest environmental problems there is, because dissolved uranium travels easily through groundwater and is extremely difficult to pull back out.
According to research reported on August 9, 2026, bacteria living deep underground may be able to trap it. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95 percent of the dissolved uranium disappeared within a short period, locked into a stable form that no longer spreads.
Glycerol is a simple, cheap, widely available compound. The approach essentially involves feeding organisms that are already living in the contaminated water and letting them do the chemistry.
Microbes that were already down there cleaned up 95 percent of the uranium once someone fed them. Nature had the tool and we just had to switch it on. Where else would that work?
Source: ScienceDaily, August 2026
