Pollution of the soil and water with multiple heavy metals is a common problem. However, most studies on the effects of heavy metals on bacteria living in these environments have only focused on one metal at a time. In a recent study, researchers found that exposing bacteria to a mixture of metals caused their metabolism to change. The researchers did not observe this change when bacteria grew with just one metal. Experiments suggest that the presence of several metals caused the cells to “think” that they were starved for iron. This is likely to change the way bacteria behave in the environment, because many bacterial enzymes require iron to function. Read More