Tag Archives: pigment

IN A NUTSHELL 🐛 Paralvinella hessleri worms thrive in toxic hydrothermal vents, showcasing remarkable adaptations. 🌋 These vents emit superheated water and deadly chemicals, creating an extreme environment. 🧪 The worms detoxify arsenic by combining it with sulfur, forming a non-toxic mineral. 🔬 Further research could unlock new methods for environmental and medical applications. In a recent study that has …

Paralvinella hessleri accumulates microscopic particles of arsenic on its outer skin, which reacts with sulfide to form a microscopic armour of yellow orpiment.Credit: Wang et al./PLoS Biol (CC BY 4.0) A bright-yellow worm that lives in deep-sea hydrothermal vents is the first known animal to create orpiment, a brilliant but toxic mineral used by artists from antiquity until the nineteenth …