Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic
PhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this 16-year-old finds the answer.
Photo: Samuel Mann/Flickr 
That was Daniel's question, and he put to the test with a very simple and clever process of immersing ground plastic in a yeast solution that encourages microbial growth, and then isolating the most productive organisms.| Previous Post Warning: Don't trash that analog TV | Next Post Prius commercial paints a human landscape |
Comments
Ahaa, its nice conversation about this post at this place at this webpage, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.
Everyone needs to help create a system to safely recycle 100% of all human-generated waste materials, while there is still time, before the biosphere collapses under the enormous and growing tons of our garbage, sludge, junk, chemicals, smoke and fumes.
wow.....great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is biggest solution for our earth..........
hoe to kill this sphigomaonas (plastic eating bacteria)..as they can not be degraded in any natural environment...
And what are the waste products of these little wonders?
.... does anyone smell Apocalypse?
The smell you perceive is the accumulating gargage, sludge, junk, smoke and fumes produced by 7 billion ambitious consumers who are too busy to be bothered with safe recycling and peaceful family planning education. Imagine a living planet, a biosphere afflicted with a raging parasite that devours and pollutes everything. You and I belong to that species and our fate is sealed UNLESS we agree to safely recycle 100% of all our waste products and peacefully reduce our population with family.... More
Even though almost everyone knows about the gigantic and growing garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, the production of various plastic containers is growing along with the growing human population, the instinct to grow overwhelming all good sense, which should inspire us to safely recycle 100% of all garbage, sludge and junk, but that would cost a lot of money and put millions of unemployed back to work, so the money wins, as usual.
I thought of doing this in 1942, but at that moment I realized it is similar to the compleat solvent... ...it will dissolve any container. Spill this plastic eater in the wrong place and it probably will replicate a thread of active creations and poof... ...there go the surroundings upon which you stand...poof ...poof ...poof
If this microbe can turn the matter into something of a better state in which we can reuse it then this is useful, else it's a waste of earth's resources.
we are about to conduct a research concerning the same problem but we don't know how to tell whether the plastics are decomposed? How will we know? what instrument shall we use?
please need help!
This article really bothers me in the sense that the first link on the page to "Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo" goes to a page that has NOTHING to do with the topic. Also there is no way this author knows what he is talking about "effective strains and interbreeding them"..... this is impossible. If you had to stumble to find an article that mentioned plastic eating bacteria then the truth is there is a reason that this work is not more popular in the media. My guess would be that this.... More
The article says that the student selected the most prolific microbes and interbred them. This can be done only with organisms that reproduce sexually. Microbes reproduce asexually, by division.
Bacteria can transfer genetic information to each other through what is called horizontal gene transfer. This is done by transformation, transduction, and conjugation.
It's been nearly ten years when I first heard about similar news from finnish scientists. What happened to them and their achievement???
Holy crap keep Joan Rivers away from that ****...
it is a great discovery 4 two school children..........bdw plz anyone tell me what are the microbes responsible 4 this??
Why bury or destroy plastic waste when it can be turned back into fuel(diesel and gasoline)Having a low cost fuel is what we need.This is the answer to it.Recycle plastic waste into fuel.
making plastic into fuel takes either an enormous amount of energy of an extremely long time (millions of years)
sorry but that probably won't work
Excellent article.
Here is history of Nylon – eating bacteria and subsequent research which shows the evolution of plastics eating bacteria.
Nylon-eating bacteria are a strain of Flavobacterium that is capable of digesting certain byproducts of nylon 6 manufacture. This strain of Flavobacterium, Sp. K172, became popularly known as nylon-eating bacteria, and the enzymes used to digest the man-made molecules became collectively known as nylonase.
Discovery
In 1975 a team of.... More
I appreciate the efforts to overcome such a huge problem, I did a lot of research concerning this point and I managed to reach a very effective method by inventing a type of plastic polymers called: "Greenphylic" which is water-soluble. It just needs water to degrade completely within couple of minutes. Moreover, it is a degradable substance, not a biodegradable one that has an effect on the environment. I believe it is an environmental friendly substance and can participate in finding a.... More
One of the biggest uses of plastic is plastic bags. So let's say it's a rainy day and you're walking from the grocery store to your car. If you had used water-soluble plastic bags, they could very well dissolve before you made it to the car. I know this is a very specific instance, but there are certainly other situations similar to this.
A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilization was the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in 1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but before we start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' we had better think of the consequences.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0564476/
Trivia
In 1971 authors Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis stripped the plot of all Doomwatch links and reworked it into a novel, "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater". See more »
A microbe that devours all plastic thus destroying modern civilization was the premise of this pretty good science fiction novel written in 1972. I think this could work very well in a closed system but before we start genetically tinkering with a 'super plastic eating microbe' we had better think of the consequences.
What if these organisms get loose? Could they begin to eat underground plumbing?
It can not happen in the US because the public schools do not focus in Science. It is always considered a minor subject.
The reason the US has fallen so far behind in science is because a huge proportion of the population keeps telling their kids that it's all bs. The big bang theory, evolution, climate change, etc. It's a shame.
I would have thought it would have been a better idea to just recycle the plastics, after all the oil won't last forever and plastic is an incredible material. Just think how much we rely on it. To destroy it forever may be shortsighted.
It also might be a good plan to check that these organisms aren't breaking down the plastics into carbon dioxide.
Little reminder, matter cannot be destroyed or created... what happens with the old plastic, that idk
this is the sorta thing that 30 years ago, we would have been doing. US kids would have been doing this, just like years ago during the space race we had kids making rockets.
the fact that this is a canadian student and a student from taiwan is a direct reflection on how far the US school system has sunk.
"the fact that this is a Canadian student and a student from Taiwan is a direct reflection on how far the US school system has sunk"
Either you are trying to make a smug remark about Canadian and Taiwanese intelligence...
Or you're saying the evidence for a poorly performing public school system is that innovations in science are coming from north of the border and overseas, now, not from home?
Either way, the US was never the only source of innovation. Scientific.... More
degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to my knowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely is that really effortable
degredation of plastic is done in labratory level but according to my knowledge degredation of plastic on field application is very costely is that really effortable
Good , now youth are becomig more and more intelligent with their mind , they are doing the work of like scientists and they will get their reward too, when i was kid , i didn't invent anything but i always with my parents and helping them in any mode.keep going on..
my question is, why the hell did it take some high school kid to discover this? after all these years? i can't wait to see how this poor kid and his discovery gets manipulated by the money powers in the future....lol
Probably they'll just name the discovery with the kid's name, and expect he'll be happy with it.
When did we stop recycling?
A lot of US states don't bother recycling, they just throw it out and let it build up.
