YOUNG scientists are taking a leaf out of nature's book in a bid to save their environment from man-made pollution.

The humble caddis fly is the key to a pioneering project linking teenage students at King James I Community College, in Bishop Auckland, with experts in Newcastle University's civil engineering department.

Examining the fly's eating habits has brought the team close to a major breakthrough as they try to solve the world-wide problem of how to clean up rivers and ponds turned red by iron seeping out of old underground mines.

The King James group - Lloyd Ames, Jimmy Alderson, Lizzie Gregory, Victoria Faw-cett, Nikki Poskett, Rebecca Gilmore, Lee Mason, Colin Leybourn, Jonathan Belton and Michael Pallister - is experimenting with different materials to test their effectiveness as filters which will draw the iron from polluted water.

They placed these materials, which include sponge, felt, leaves and clinker, in chicken wire 'sculptures' in a badly contaminated offshoot of the River Gaunless, on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland.

After the summer holidays each model will be retrieved, dried and weighed to see which material absorbed the most iron.

Artist Aidan Doyle is part of the Newcastle University team, led by Dr Paul Younger, advising the school: He said: "The work these children are doing is at the cutting edge of global best practice.

"They are involved in repairing their part of the planet and the results of their work will be of benefit to scientists in the field of minewater pollution all over the world."

The group took their inspiration from the caddis fly which builds its own larval case from river sand and plant vegetation.

Their science teacher Phil Davison explained: "It builds its own case around its body so that it can sit on the river bed feeding from anything that is caught in its filter system.

"We are using the same simple principle but it could be of huge significance in tackling what could be a pollution time- bomb."