Posted on 04/17/2018 6:50:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug.
The international team then tweaked the enzyme to see how it had evolved, but tests showed they had inadvertently made the molecule even better at breaking down the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic used for soft drink bottles. “What actually turned out was we improved the enzyme, which was a bit of a shock,” said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK, who led the research. “It’s great and a real finding.”
The mutant enzyme takes a few days to start breaking down the plastic – far faster than the centuries it takes in the oceans. But the researchers are optimistic this can be speeded up even further and become a viable large-scale process.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Unintended consequences comes to mind. Like curing cancer with rabies.
Could anything possibly go wrong?
Picture this bug on the loose. Your clothes would fall off you. All your beverage bottles would collapse into goo. The dashboard on your car would melt into a puddle. Every electronic gadget in your house would dissolve.
GRAY GOO! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
They’ll have to bury this until the next ‘Rat president.
Otherwise, Big Media won’t be able to publish anti-Republican articles about the island of plastic trash in the Pacific that gets ever-so-much more gargantuan whenever a Republican is elected President.
“Could anything possibly go wrong?”
My thoughts exactly.
Thanks. I completely forgot about Gray Goo. That faded away, didn’t it? Looks like it’s being resurrected here in a different way.
What could possibly go wrong?
It was a major player in the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.
But yeah, you don’t hear about it much any more. Maybe that is exactly WHEN we SHOULD be worried. ;-)
The enzyme eats plastic bottles, but did they mention that the “by-product” of this consumption is a deadly gas that destroys the ozone layer, kills all plant life, and causes liberals to multiply like Tribbles?
OK, it almost certainly doesn’t do the first two, but let’s make double-damn-sure they don’t cause the third to happen. {;^)
Yeah, it’s all fun and games until somebody loses an (plastic) eye.
Yes, sounds too scary to turn loose. It could be the new kudzu.
WE’RE DOOMED!
KYPD
My winter coat maybe, but I only wear natural fibers for the important stuff like shirts, pants, underwear, socks, etc.
That’s good advice.
Larry Nice wrote about something similar to this happening to a very advanced society in ihs Ringworld series.
Niven
I feel sorry for all of you gomers who have those evil black stocked plastic rifle and pistols.
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