Yet another great bit of news from the Science Blog, and seasonal, too!:

While parents and youngsters are busy carving jack-o-lanterns in preparation for Halloween, Canadian scientists are hard at work on another way to use the popular yellow-orange plant. New research shows that pumpkins can clean up soil contaminated with DDT and other pollutants.

In a greenhouse study, members of the Cucurbita pepo species -- including pumpkin and zucchini -- demonstrated the ability to remove DDT from soil, suggesting a potential ''green'' technique for cleaning up sites contaminated with DDT, PCBs and other harmful compounds.