Richard Meagher and Phytoremediation

Richard Meagher, at the University of Georgia, is doing some excellent work using plants to clean up toxic materials in soils, a technology otherwise known as phytoremediation.  Meagher's lab genetically modifies plants and trees so that they express a bacterial gene that helps metabolize complex mercury and arsenic compounds.  His team has achieved impressive results, some of which was described in National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth.