SCIENCE
Arsenic
Tuesday 9 May 2006 9:30-9:45 (Radio 4 FM)
Arsenic has been a popular method of poisoning people since the Middle Ages, but there are some life forms which thrive on it. Biologist Ron Oremland has discovered microbes living in lakes in America that use arsenic in the same way that we use oxygen.
It's a discovery that could point the way towards cleaning up parts of the world, such as Bangladesh, where the water supply is heavily contaminated and where thousands of people suffer serious health consequences.
