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Fish Evolve Immunity To Toxic Sludge

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-does-not-kill-me dept.

RedEaredSlider writes "Fish in the Hudson River and the harbor in New Bedford, Mass., have evolved resistance to PCBs. In the Hudson, a species of tomcod has evolved a way for a very specific protein to simply not bind to PCBs, nearly eliminating the toxicity. In New Bedford, the Atlantic killifish has proteins that bind to the toxin (just as they do in mammals) but the fish aren't affected despite high levels of PCBs in their cells. Why the killifish survive is a mystery."

4 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Because they're KILLfish, duh ... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 3, Funny

    That which kills other fish only makes them stronger!

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  2. Re:Why would this be a surprise? by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

    When you put it like that, my life's work sounds like mere homocide.

  3. Re:up the food chain by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Danmit. They'll poison my soylent green when the peasants eat the fish. Let them eat cake!

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  4. Re:up the food chain by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Funny

    You think the robber barons responsible for the pollution eat anything fished out of the Hudson? Fat chance. If the toxins do work their way up the food chain, it'll be the peasant class that suffers for it.

    Yes, but our Overlords will suffer when we perish and aren't around for them to exploit anymore.

    We should eat these fish just to spite them. Quick, before they outlaw it!

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade