Uranium-"Eating" Bacteria?

Organisms on our planet are sometimes categorized by their diets. You've probably heard about herbivores, carnivores, and maybe even omnivores, but what about uranium-vores? You read that right; scientists recently discovered microbes capable of eating dissolved uranium and turning it into a stable solid, helping rid our waterways of hazardous radioactive materials.

Uranium is normally locked inside minerals in soil, but due to mining and other processes, this uranium could convert to different forms capable of dissolving in water. The toxic metal can quickly spread across the entire body of water, threatening both human health and ecosystem stability.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers shockingly found out that over the course of 130 days, the bacteria were able to take out 95% of uranium in a water sample, proving it to be a potentially effective way to mitigate the problem posed by waterborne uranium.

The German research team extracted contaminated water from a flooded mine, added glycerol to the solution, and kept the samples in an oxygen-free environment. Glycerol is the key to the experiment; it serves as a food source for the bacteria, allowing them to get to work quickly.

The bacteria don't actually "eat" the uranium, but rather incorporate it into their cell walls, converting it into a more stable compound. What's interesting about this incorporation is that it stays stable, even when it comes in contact with oxygen. This is huge because it could lead to the bacteria-driven technique actually being used in the field, in oxygen-rich waterways and soils.

Although this technology is still emerging, it proves to be a promising piece of environmental remediation that could potentially mitigate one of the dangers facing our planet.

Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13139381/ ,https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260807035149.htm