Scientists accidentally create mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles

The Guardian ^

[SERKIT]

As seen under a microscope:

[StAntKnee]

Is this something you'd want to let out of the plastic bottle?

[Conan the Librarian]

THAT was the book! My Mom had a copy of that sitting around the house. I never got around to reading it.

[A Navy Vet]

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[Bonemaker]

“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.”

There goes Nancy Pelosi’s face.

[Bonemaker]

“Yes, sounds too scary to turn loose. It could be the new kudzu.”

Like emigre democrats in Texas.

[Pajamajan]

It's gonna mutate into Godzilla, count on it 😬

[Bonemaker]

“Now if they can come up with one that eats liberals...”

There were experiments with those a few decades back...they ate democrats and pissed gasoline.

[Professional Engineer]

Andromeda Strain.

[Moonman62]

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.

...

The big news here is that waste dumps serve multiple beneficial purposes.

[tet68]

the researchers are optimistic this can be speeded up even further and become a viable large-scale process.

Honey! Our new plastic lawn chairs are MELTING!!!

[Moonman62]

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.

...

I think the bacteria needs a certain environment to thrive that wouldn’t be encountered in normal every day life.

[Telepathic Intruder]

The Puppeteers engineered a weaponized mold that would eat superconductor material, which collapsed their floating cities. I imagine plastic-eating bacteria could destroy most of modern society. Almost everything contains some plastic.

[1FreeAmerican]

Enzymes and bacteria that eat oil products have been around for a while. I first found out about these installing float switches in reclaimed water tanks for a car wash. Nothing new to see here folks.

[vetvetdoug]

I was in graduate school and one of the microbiologists developed a Pseudomonas spp that used phenol as a substrate. WTF was my thought and with the propensity of that species to pass its plasmids to others I thought it folly.

[NativeSon]

I watched some sci-fi whereas the very thing occurred.

The bacteria that was to solve oil spills and pollution, mutliplied, mutated and ate any & all hydrocarbons and similar polymers.

No rubber, plastics, fuels, waxes, countless drugs, lubricants... put the planet into a pre-industrial age, forever.

[Snowybear]

What could possibly go wrong? Even God himself couldn’t screw this up! {ducks}

[GOPJ]

Ice nine?

[Charles Martel]

I imagine plastic-eating bacteria could destroy most of modern society. Almost everything contains some plastic.

I guess the (real) Amish will get the last laugh, after all.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“I was in graduate school and one of the microbiologists developed a Pseudomonas spp that used phenol as a substrate.”

Bacteria that grow on phenol and other aromatic compounds are naturally occurring and common so there is no need to develop one. The same is true of aromatic compounds with more than one ring (ie biphenyl).