purifying water using shredded horseradish-how?

[Keith Robison]

Brian Ford (bjford at cix.compulink.co.uk) wrote:
: But you do drink it! 

: Water from sand-filter beds has been purified through the growth of 
: ciliates which sweep up pathogens. My guess is that the horse-radish 
: )like the straw) provides the substrate and food trigger which does this 
: in contaminated bodies of water. The clear water of a mountain stream is 
                                        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
: kept that way by ciliates, too.

Many a hiker has caught giardiasis from clear mountain streams.
It's not just pathogenic bacteria you must worry about -- but also
all the nasty protists (giardia, cryptosporidium, entamoeba) and
worms.

This isn't something to fool around with -- the only "purify-with-straw"
suggestion that made any sense was the hay soup idea.

Keith Robison
Harvard University
Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology
Department of Genetics / HHMI

robison at mito.harvard.edu