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Plastic-Eating Fungi Found in the Amazon May Solve World’s Waste Problem
PSFK.com ^
| March 7, 2012
| Emma Hutchings
Posted on 03/16/2012 10:58:09 AM PDT by Twotone
A group of students and professors from Yale University have found a fungi in the Amazon rainforest that can degrade and utilize the common plastic polyurethane (PUR). As part of the universitys Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory educational program, designed to engage undergraduate students in discovery-based research, the group searched for plants and cultured the micro-organisms within their tissue.
(Excerpt) Read more at psfk.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: amazon; flesheating; plastics; rainforest; skineaters
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I guess it's true that for every 'thing' in the world, there's somebody willing to eat it.
1
posted on
03/16/2012 10:58:15 AM PDT
by
Twotone
To: Twotone
Yeah, great. The search for oil-eating and plastic eating bugs.
Then, next thing you know, some freak Greenie group will let the things go all over the place, and plastic everywhere will start to fall apart. I can just see the supermarket shelves, now!
Great job, guys! But watch out, these fungi will eat your iPads!
2
posted on
03/16/2012 11:01:50 AM PDT
by
Cicero
(Marcus Tullius)
To: Twotone
In other news, Cher and her offspring have gone into seclusion.
3
posted on
03/16/2012 11:02:08 AM PDT
by
BykrBayb
(Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
To: Cicero
As long as it doesn’t join forces with SkyNet.
4
posted on
03/16/2012 11:02:58 AM PDT
by
dead
(I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
To: Twotone
This sounds like a SciFi novel’s plot. I can see unintended consequences for letting loose a plastic (oil) eating microbe into the wild.
5
posted on
03/16/2012 11:08:14 AM PDT
by
Yo-Yo
(Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
To: Twotone
Any chance, if it eats plastic, that it excretes crude oil? maybe gasoline?
6
posted on
03/16/2012 11:09:08 AM PDT
by
muir_redwoods
(No wonder this administration favors abortion; everything they have done is an abortion)
To: Twotone
First they come for your plastic, then they come for your Gold Card.
7
posted on
03/16/2012 11:09:17 AM PDT
by
Miss Behave
(All ways, always.)
To: Cicero
If you ever watched the movie Andromeda Strain that was a part of the plot in the movie an unknown organism was eating the plastic hose fittings in an F4 Phantom causing the aircraft to crash and killing the pilot.
It’s amazing how far ahead sci-fi is ahead of science fact.
8
posted on
03/16/2012 11:12:49 AM PDT
by
puppypusher
(The World is going to the dogs.)
To: BykrBayb
"In other news, Cher and her offspring have gone into seclusion."OMG BykrBayb. That's it--thread over, everyone. LOL.
9
posted on
03/16/2012 11:12:49 AM PDT
by
Miss Behave
(All ways, always.)
To: Twotone
Is this supposed to be good news?
Get a spot on your new GM vehicle and end up with 2 pounds of cheap sheet metal and a hand full of screws.
10
posted on
03/16/2012 11:16:09 AM PDT
by
dangerdoc
(see post #6)
To: Miss Behave
11
posted on
03/16/2012 11:18:40 AM PDT
by
BykrBayb
(Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
To: dangerdoc
And several hundred pounds of lead...
12
posted on
03/16/2012 11:20:44 AM PDT
by
null and void
(Day 1151 of America's ObamaVacation from reality [Heroes aren't made, Frank, they're cornered...])
To: Twotone
The genus Pestalotiopsis is grouped in the Xylariales order and comprises several known plant pathogens. The fungus is not host specific and causes rot and disease in a wide variety of plant species (29), although these isolates were all endophytic and the plants showed no pathogenic symptoms. Pestalotiopsis microspora isolates have previously been shown to have a propensity for horizontal gene transfer. In one notable case, a Pestalotiopsis microspora strain isolated as a fungal endophyte from the taxol-producing plant Taxus wallachiana had acquired the ability to synthesize taxol (27). Such a propensity for horizontal gene transfer may have contributed to the ability of a subset of these isolates to degrade polyester polyurethane as a sole carbon substrate, or it may reflect a significant level of phenotypic diversity among the genus.Uhhh, this might not be sooo good...
To: Twotone
Any way to modify the DNA of that fungus so that it eats liberals?
To: Twotone
Eli's coulda stayed right at home in New Haven...wandred down to the NH green and taken some bio-samples from the OWSers *still* there. EUWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
15
posted on
03/16/2012 11:23:37 AM PDT
by
Daffynition
(On Andrew Breitbart: In his honor, I'll fight harder...He'll be back and he'll be millions.)
To: Cicero
“The fungi can survive on polyurethane alone and is uniquely able to do so in an oxygen-free environment.”
As long as the iPads are aren’t buried in a land-fill, they should be okay. But I have no problem threatening the Greenies with such a possibility, just for the amusement value.
16
posted on
03/16/2012 11:24:29 AM PDT
by
Twotone
(Marte Et Clypeo)
To: Twotone
"Oh, Gus the gardener's gone now....and you went with him too....The fungus here reminds me of the fun Gus is having with you...."
17
posted on
03/16/2012 11:27:12 AM PDT
by
dfwgator
(Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
To: Yo-Yo
Sci Fi novel has been done on this subject. Story of a bacteria used to clean oil spills that end up consuming anything oil based. Read it a few years ago.
To: Twotone
Follow-up story yet to be written:
Government spends half-million for plastic shipping containers to ship samples of Plastic-Eating Fungi. (Sarc)
To: Da Coyote
LIEberals at Yale?..........No WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
20
posted on
03/16/2012 11:33:44 AM PDT
by
Daffynition
(On Andrew Breitbart: In his honor, I'll fight harder...He'll be back and he'll be millions.)
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