Plants v Explosives

Dr Liz Rylott gave the September Cafe Scientifique session describing her work with plants, genetically modifying them to clean-up explosive-contaminated land. This lively presentation gave us a lot of issues to consider and discuss. There is the potential for these plants to be used to clean large areas of land such as military training ranges, or industrial sites. This research is undertaken by CNAP (Centre for Novel Agricultural Products) based at The University of York. The team, under Professor Neil Bartlett, has shown that modified plants are capable of removing TNT and RDX, two of the most widely used explosives, from soil and water.

Dr Rylott will be repeating her presentation for Sixth Form students, parents and the community at Northallerton Sixth Form College in November.

A video about the research is available at:
Plants vs Explosives Video