Re: gauge railway workshop to yard

"Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1msnqoczp.fsf@void.com...

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A very different "mining" method you may find of interest :)
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https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/phytomining-harvesting-metal-through-plants/

Makes sense to develop this.
Heard of plants which absorb so much arsenic that logic says try to
work-out what advantage they could be getting.
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A possible explanation is that they can't tell Arsenic from Phosphorus, but have evolved to tolerate it.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1197258
"However, given the similarities of As and P—and by analogy with trace element substitutions—we hypothesized that AsO43– could specifically substitute for PO43– in an organism possessing mechanisms to cope with the inherent instability of AsO43– compounds.."
Much heavy metal and radioactivity poisoning is similar, for instance Strontium is similar enough to Calcium to make radioactive Strontium-90 easily absorbed and incorporated into bones etc. They are toxic because at some point they don't act similarly enough to the lower weight atom they were mistaken for.
The Romans also acquired Sodium Carbonate (soda ash) for glass making from saltwort plants. It could have made soap for them, if not for their hard water, so they used the ammonia in fermented urine to wash laundry. It was their strongest stable and soluble alkali, just as vinegar was their strongest acid. Chemistry couldn't advance until stronger acids were discovered. The blowpipe articles I mentioned describe how it extracts many metals.
My degree is in Chemistry, though the Vietnam draft kept me from advancing beyond a B.S., the EPA killed job prospects and I found I liked the computer electronics I learned in the Army better and jobs were plentiful. Since the courses include much Calculus and Physics it's a good general science degree that prepares one to at least understand the explanations in any technical field.
The first place I found work after the Army built custom industrial production test equipment, which required knowing both how to address the mainly electrical / electronic issues as well as how to personally fabricate, plumb and wire the machine, the small company was competitive because it was so lean and fast. They couldn't simply hire that mix of theoretical and practical skills so they taught me the construction techniques and I learned the rapidly evolving integrated electronics of the 1970's from manufacturers' literature.