CAN BACTERIA HELP US AVOID MORE MINING? 

I have a new piece out in the newsletter examining a breakthrough from a startup backed by two of the world's biggest mining giants.  

Experts I consulted called the milestone "significant."  

But there are political troubles brewing. 

Humans have using microbes to extract metal for centuries.  

But the startup Endolith just released exciting new test results for its optimized process that its founders, whose efforts are backed by BHP and Rio Tinto, believe could revolutionize our ability to generate new metal from wasted tailings.

Despite that promise, it's been really hard to get research funding to explore the potential of microbially-assisted mining.   

That was starting to change under Biden, whose NSF funded projects other countries wouldn't.   

Now researchers looking into mining rare earths with microbes fear major cuts under Trump.

Read the story here: 

https://paragraph.com/@kaufman/can-bacteria-serve-as-microscopic-miners-of-the-metals-we-need

Neat to see journalists starting to experiment with @paragraph

Where writers share, grow, and get paid — one post at a time.