Nature cleaning itself.




Posted by WillisGreeny

Looks like England has worms that can eat toxins, creating the possability of animals someday adapting to what we **** up.

[quote]"These worms seem to be able to tolerate incredibly high concentrations of heavy metals, and the metals seem to be driving their evolution," said lead researcher Mark Hodson of the University of Reading in England.

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081007-super-worms.html"]Source[/URL]




Posted by Roger Smith

Hah, who woulda thought. Earthworms would save the world.

I call the name: Earthwormicus Jimicus.




Posted by #061402

Soon they'll grow to monstrous size and wage war on us for dominance. :(




Posted by Lord of Spam

We can only hope. That'd be a pretty awwwright war.




Posted by Xero

Yay for worms ^_^




Posted by Kyuuketsuki

Worms tolerating the heavy metals?

pretty gr1m.




Posted by #061402

Now to make them like nuclear waste.




Posted by ExoXile

Nature finds way, always.

If nothing else it'll just select humanity for extinction.
I don't think it's meant for us to be here anyway. :big_bird:




Posted by Trigger

I remember some nerd creating worms that are able to tolerate digest plastic bags. I believe they even started a rubbish dump area that mixed plastic bags, dirt and worms and then leave it there for months of end and it is then turned into good quality soil, as a result of the worms waste. Pretty interesting if we can upscale these sorts of efforts even further.




Posted by Kyuuketsuki

I just wonder what we have to look forward to if we actually take use of their "powers". Like what could we benefit from researching it, etc.




Posted by Trigger

Yeah because there have been so many times that I wished I could just chow down on some metal and totally come out without any problems. Think about the waste produced, now in metal form.

It adds a whole new level to hardcore.




Posted by ExoXile

Hardcore Metal* Generation




Posted by misogenie

I hear that an earthworm can have five hearts. That means if one heart dies, the creature has four lives to survive. Nature (or Creator) has created a magical smart creature to prevent all life from extinction. I wish I could have five hearts so that living 200 years or longer can be possible.:cool: :eek:




Posted by ExoXile

On what grounds do you base that?
Sounds more like it would shorten you life to me.




Posted by #061402

I could understand if two or three hearts were kept inactive until they were needed, but otherwise they'd all be just as worn out.




Posted by ExoXile

It's more than the heart that fails us at higher ages, too.




Posted by #061402

Indeed.




Posted by Xero


Quoting misogenie: I wish I could have five hearts so that living 200 years or longer can be possible.:cool: :eek:


Unfortunately, that's only good for longevity. Too bad most people die of diseases, accidents or watching an Oprah show :(



Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Wait, did these worms evolve recently or something? Because they adapted pretty fast if that was the case. Though it's no real surprise there's some creature out there that will shape itself to thrive off the **** we've done to the planet. Just kinda figured we'd see that a lot later.




Posted by WillisGreeny

By what I've read, the worms have been evolving over the past 150 years. What's been happening is as the worm's food supplies got tainted with metals, certain traits of the digestive system that were already in some worms got favored over others, eventually wiping out all worms that didn't have that trait. Basically, Natural Selection.

Why it's happening so fast is probably due to how quickly the worm generation cycle is. It's like, what...a week?




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Yeah, guess that makes sense. Guess it's just hard to fathom something can evolve and adapt that quick.