Cleaner waters

Antibodies made in plants can mop up traces of pesticides in the water that
runs off farmers’ fields, according to researchers at the University of Aberdeen
and at Axis Genetics in Cambridge. The researchers engineered tobacco plants to
produce sheep antibodies against the pesticide atrazine. They say that these
“plantibodies” could cost as little as 50p a gram to make, and that
£5000-worth of plantibodies will be able to filter 50 million litres of
water a day.