Boy Discovers Microbe That Eats Plastic
June 23rd, 2009Via: Mother Nature Network:
PhDs have been searching for a solution to the plastic waste problem, and this 16-year-old finds the answer.
It’s not your average science fair when the 16-year-old winner manages to solve a global waste crisis. But such was the case at last May’s Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo, Ontario, where Daniel Burd, a high school student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, presented his research on microorganisms that can rapidly biodegrade plastic.
NOTE: there are TWO high school students who discovered plastic-consuming microorganisms. The first was Daniel Burd (last year). The second was Tseng I-Ching (last month), a high school student in Taiwan.
Daniel had a thought it seems even the most esteemed PhDs hadn’t considered. Plastic, one of the most indestructible of manufactured materials, does in fact eventually decompose. It takes 1,000 years but decompose it does, which means there must be microorganisms out there to do the decomposing.
Could those microorganisms be bred to do the job faster?
That was Daniel’s question which he put to the test by 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.
The preliminary results were encouraging, so he kept at it, selecting out the most effective strains and interbreeding them. After several weeks of tweaking and optimizing temperatures Burd was achieved a 43 % degradation of plastic in six weeks, an almost inconceivable accomplishment.
…
It goes without saying that these discoveries need to be tested to ensure, for instance, that the bi-products of organic decomposition are not carcinogenic (as in the case with mammalian metabolism of styrene and benzene). The processing of plastics by these methods would also have to be contained in highly controlled environments. So, no, we’re not talking about a magic panacea or a plastic-free paradise, but the innovative application of microorganisms to break down our most troublesome waste products is nevertheless a major scientific breakthrough.
Finally, close to four decades later, Science Fiction becomes Science:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_2_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mutant+59+the+plastic+eaters&sprefix=mutant+5&sprefix=mutant+5&sprefix=mutant+5
I read “Mutant 59:The Plastic Eaters” as a kid. Great book. Recommend it.
(I think the Amazon link properly tags
Cryptogon, but be sure to click through here
to buy…)
I would hope that anyone planning to release
a plastic-eater into the wild would read this
yarn first.
“Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters”
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/gerry-davis/mutant-59.htm
“The processing of plastics by these methods would also have to be contained in highly controlled environments.”
Yes, because if a particularly efficient strain of bacteria was developed and got out into the wild, we might have to start prescribing antibiotics for our appliances.