Slashdot Mirror
Sweat-Eating Bacteria to Live in Your Clothes
amyaimee writes: "Perfect for you hygiene-challenged computer geeks (you know who you are): New Scientist reports on a new clothing made of milkweed containing a special strain of e. coli designed to feed on human sweat and the proteins that cause B.O. Alex Lightman of Charmed Technology quips, "I wear the same pair of jeans all the time and I'm sure they have bacterial colonies living in them, but if they were selected to convert my sweat into sweet-smelling pheromones, that would be great," he says."
You still did not explain how this removes the scambled eggs from the front of my sweater.
The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
What's wrong with washing? What's so terrible about having a nice invigorating shower or lying relaxing in the bath for half an hour?
What's wrong with soap and deodorant, and why is washing your clothes such a problem?
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned...
I'm out of my tree just now but please feel free to leave a banana.
There are always those who try to justify filth.
Europeans used to think, and some of them might
still do, that washing more often than once
a year was dangerous for their health.
Funny that the fear of washing still exist to
this day. They considered our native ancestors
savages because they washed often.
The black robes thought of being washed as being
tortured, perhaps many other europeans thought
that as well. Perhaps many still feel that way.
What a disappointment to the panty sniffers of the world.......
Slashdot is like Playboy: I read it for the articles
Solution: nuclear power.
---
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
As for the poll, I've been out at the pub a number of times this week, so mainly my clothes smell like cigarette smoke; but now I'm off to do laundry, so I picked "fresh and clean."
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Maybe it's just me, but every time I see
'e. coli', I get it confused with Ebola...
;-)
Jim
MMDC Mobile Media
-- My Weblog.
"Hey, that's a killer shirt!"
"Thanks, it's the shit."
Reading the article is a bit tricky when New Scientist gets slashdotted.
i've heard that pheremones are most commonly found where b.o. is the highest, eg the armpit, so if you illiminate the sweat and odor, would you not also be illiminating a lot of the pheremones too. how will i get chicks then?
Err, am I the only person on earth who starts imagining something by recalling the smell and the taste of the event? I tell ya, if I could remember what I've seen as well as I can remember what I've smelt I would tell reality to go jump. Right now, let me think about watermelon. *woah* sweet. It is genuinely hard for me to tell the difference between a "real" taste and an imagined one. This could be just one of those things that is part of the differences in human experiences.
How we know is more important than what we know.
If she does, so much the better! (Us geeks love eating pizza :)
I want this in a spray can so I can hose down some stinky co-workers.
Now available in Roll-on, spray-on, or crawl-on. Ewww!
i wonder if they could could create clothes that have bacteria that eat poo, this would be great for those poor people that can't control their bowels or just like poo.
--
microsoft, it's what's for dinner
bq--3b7y4vyll6xi5x2rnrj7q.com
it's a sig, wtf?
Why would she need to buy GM clothing when I could just lick it off for her for free? hehe
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
How will this effect the body's ability to cool off when it is too hot. When sweat evaporates, it cools the body off. If this bacteria eats the sweat, we would lose the ability to cool our bodies off naturally. Not to mention I don't want to introduce another strain of bacteria. Does anyone trust companies that much?
At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
I don't want to have to have a permanent wedgie when it's warm just because my ass sweats a lot.
Hmmm. I wonder if this is like how sunflowers turn towards the sun. Your pants will be attracted to the crack of your ass.
-prator
..start cheezy music...
Just put this powder in the water with the rest of your clothes and it magically removes the organic and inorganic dirt! No more stinky clothes! No more stains!
Soap! Use some today!
...end cheezy music...
Seriously though, battling the organic dirt with bacteria is only solving half the problem. Where has the common sense gone?
dust is dead skin...
you are asking for a flesh eating bacterium...
Nah, just skin. It sounds interesting. Maybe if we send it up in space and blast these little fellas to every corner of the globe, we're FINALLY gonna get rid of dust.
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
Isn't that the same stuff that forces towns to shut tell people "Don't drink the water because it's contaminated"? Interesting concept though. They should just make a body spray of the stuff so you can get to the root of the problem with some of the people who take BO to the next level, which is of course, biological and chemical warfare.
I understood that sweat is part of a masculine sex appeal, to cover it up would mean the same as throwing a brick at your own window - because aaahhh, women just plain simple like the scents of nature, they won't like this y'know.
--
Bizar technology?
Cowboy Neal reported to be "rejoicing greatly."
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
"they don't call me the Colonel cause I'm some dumb-ass army guy"
Exactly!!
So these happy little bacteria living in the crotch of my pants will now be eating sweat and excreting what? More stinking bacteria crap!
Just because something will happily eat stinky crap, doesn't mean their crap won't stink.
So, everything you wear is white/bright coloured?
As another poster pointed out, hot water causes clothing to wear out faster, as does bleach. I was complaining to a fellow jujitsu student about how my ghi (uniform) never seemed to come completely clean any more, and he said "Oh, I just use bleach." I then realised why his was starting to wear out after only a year (those things are TOUGH, and they also cost $60 which, to someone who likes to shop at Sunny's Surplus and thrift stores, is quite a bit).
Dark clothing, especially cotton, is supposed to be washed in cold water. I've had some black concert T-shirts for _years_ (washing them with the design on the inside helps, too).
Sotto la panca, la capra crepa
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
so what do you think will happen in these milkweed clothes when mr. i-make-phermones bacteria functioning at 70% metabolic maximum due to it's genetically-engineered burden is forced to compete for food with mr. wild-as-i-wanna-be bacteria functioning at 100% metabolic maximum? hmmph
I think that since the freindly human is looking after the engineered bacteria and dumping *huge* populations of it into compitition that it will win. And if it starts to loose you just spray some more of it on so that the ratio is very tilted again. I personaly think that this would make a great deoderint. I belive I read a passing refrence to something like this in one of the "years best sci-fi" books and its something I have wanted to see since.
>Since I actually wash myself minimum once a day
And anyone who doesn't is a fucking pig, as far as I'm concerned.
Just try telling that to the folks living in the middle of Sahara or in other rather exotic places with rather little extra water. ;)
Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
"Perfect for you hygiene-challenged computer geeks (you know who you are): " TRUE computer geeks don't have a clue that they're hygiene challenged.
Whoops, sorry, my mistake :-)
Didn't look at the website as this was the article I read in my dead-tree-edition just before I came to work this morning, so it was still pretty fresh (unlike the jeans in question!)
kind of reminds me of Roosta's towel...
TomV
Frank: What kinda beer do ya drink kid?
Kid: Heineken.
Frank: Heineken??? F**k that sh*t - PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!!
(I just got Blue Velvet on DVD last week - and Dennis Hopper's performance as Frank is one of his best - and that's my favorite line from the movie!)
[Connection closed by foreign host]
But seriously, what would happen to this harmless bacteria after being exposed to our sweat? It might not be very pretty.
Fight Spammers!
... it has been proven that bacteria without antibiotic resistance successfully displace and kill off bacteria with antibiotic resistance in the wild... why? because to defend themselves against antibiotics, resistant bacteria are exerting a hefty metabolic toll in order to survive... without antibiotics to worry about, those bacteria who are free to devote all of their metabolic efforts to survival and reproduction will outcompete their metabolically-hobbled cousins...
Actually, that's not quite true. Some antibiotic resistance mechanisms, such as altered binding proteins, don't seem to slow the bacteria down much. You find them in nature all the time. Other mechanisms, like cellular pumps that actively punt antibiotics out of the bacterium, are much more demanding. It depends on the mechanism, the bacteria, and the threat environment.
Remember, most antibiotics and antibiotic resistance evolved long before people were involved.
More on the topic, does anyone else wonder how the heck you're going to sell "bacteria-infested" clothing to the average idiot in a clothing store? I can just see the ads now, with happy singing bacteria dancing through the clothing fibers. Anybody want to suggest a catchy slogan?
Let's say the critters get out of hand. Exponential growth - heat generated from metabolisis - then BOOM - spontaneous combustion. I wonder how'd you smell after that.
If you don't believe me, ask that guy over there.
Correction, there would be a lot of naked hippies that still stink.
Whatever happened to CowboyNeal? Just at LinuxTag, CmdrTaco said that CowboyNeal is the right answer to all questions and of course it is: My clothes do smell like CowboyNeal.
You really left out an important option here. Shame on you.
"It may be your sole purpose in life to serve as a warning to others."
a dust eating parasite would be alot more interesting
They're already there; dust mites. Too bad their poop gives some people an allergic reaction...
from now on the smell of fear won't be so terrible then?
Changes sweat stench into a good smelling fragrance... I can't wait till they put some of kind of bacteria into my toilet bowl that changes it into gold. Weehaw!
Actually that's why your armpits and sweaty clothes stink. Fresh sweat doesn't stink. Of course there are some pheromones and whatnot included, but most of the nasty smell comes from the waste products of the bacteria feeding on our sweat. I wonder how these engineered bacteria will compete with the natural ones already present.
Also, I can't really see this as something we'd want to have. Whenever my clothes get drenched in sweat on scorching hot summer days I prefer changing them after a nice cold shower. I seriously doubt that any technical innovation will ever get me to cut back on personal hygene. Of course, there are a lot of stinkers out there who just don't care. I can see an application of this technology on them, for the benifit of the rest of us.
A penny for your thoughts.
A witty
Because she's all over me!
This technology brings hope that someday the plague of the stinky programmer, scientist and researcher will be wiped out like polio. No more shall co-workers have to suffer an intolerable stench. No more will someone curiously wonder why they find soap on their desk every morning. No more will I have to threaten to fire someone because they won't bathe on a daily basis.
But before that day comes let me just give everyone a word of adive: "This ain't France. Taking a shower every day. And for Pete's sake put on some deodorant."
Frylock: That's not a toy!
Master Shake: You say that about everything you own. You should own toys. They're fun.
We already have billions of sweat-eating bacteria on our bodies... this is what leads to the phenomenon known as "stank-ass body odour".
"So on one hand, honey is an amazingly sophisticated and efficient food source. On the other hand it's bee backwash."
How can your clothes smell like Angelina Jolie when you're a man? My guess is, they thought she's a man. Sure she's ugly, but she doesn't look anything like a man to me.
I never wash my cloth because I'm too lazy and I have to go get new ones when people start complaining about the smell. Thanks to those cute little bacteries I won't have to buy new clothes. :)
From now on I'll be marketing bacteries and their benefits
....because I'm sure she smells exactly like me, after she has been running and jumping through that movie all the time. ^_^
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
What would also be fun is taking water samples that are tested for general coliform contamination and, whoops, accidentally letting your shirt sleeve contact the sample as it's being analyzed.
There's a great deal of potential for abuse for these clothes...
If using Linux is about choice, how come people complain when I choose to use Windows?
>Geeks might, on average, have a harder time keeping clean, but these types of clothes is NOT an excuse for letting things slip even further. *bad grammar alert* >Nothing beats a good healthy shower and a bar of soap! Think carefully before saying nothing, for a way acompanies every way. The way may not be found today, or tommorow, but some day, humanity will cast off the shakles of soap and water, and delare in one voice, "We shall ever bathe again!"
My joke got modded as Insightful and my insight got modded as Funny.
And this would be good for hygien challenged individuals how? Read first, mark as troll later.... OK?
This type of clothes, although a great scientific feat, will not exactly promote better hygien. If you can walk around for days or weeks without washing, and these clothes make you smell irresistible - I would hardly call these clothes 'the best thing since sliced bread'. Geeks might, on average, have a harder time keeping clean, but these types of clothes is NOT an excuse for letting things slip even further.
Nothing beats a good healthy shower and a bar of soap!
Swedish, but resident in the UK since 1996.
It could always mutate into something that lets say, eats off your skin.
I think it would be strangely appropriate for mankind to die off in a vain attempt to be more socially acceptable.
I always thought the (odourless) anti perspirant "Deoleen" also had some stuff in it actively killing bacteria. It does do some good, although it is certainly no total solution to the problem. anyway, I don't see how bacteria on clothes could reach the sweat in time, before the other bacteia do.
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
The smelly part of sweat is produced by bacteria, and deodorants try to keep those bacteria from growing. So now we are going to introduce clothes with bacteria on them and expect them to reach the sweat earlier than the bacteria on our skin? get real!
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
"They're tough little guys,"
Are you telling me that this Fowler guy and his team of scientists almost got their asses kicked by bacteria? BO is the least of their worries if that's the case. Hit the weights boys!
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
My girlfriend doesn't call me 'sweetie' for nothing.
why not use e.coli in the laundry detergent. that way, when shirts start moving on their own, (and beileive me, I seen it), the detergent will take care of them. either that or burn them. the choice is yours.
Alas, poor clippy, I loath him so.
Let us ponder the mysteries of life.
Bacteria that loves sweat living in clothes plus sweaty person that wears clothes plus evolutionary pressures for survival equals bacteria that migrate to people and start hiding out in unwashed nooks and crannies and folds of flesh and reproduce like mad.
Sign me up! I can't wait to be part of the next experiment in cultivating a flesh-eating bacteria plague which will leave my tortured skin smelling lemon fresh!
(Seriously, what about people with piercings and skin infections and cysts? Perfect spots for sweat-eating bacteria to hide out in. Be scared.)
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
So in order to get rid of harmless bacteria, I'm going to put a harmless one on my body. e. coli is e. coli. It could always mutate into something that lets say, eats off your skin.
.... forget it.
sounds like cutting of your nose to
Get your Unix fortune now!
I'm hoping that the beer, coffee, and coke spills, candy bar and cookie crumbs, cigarette ashes, plucked eyebrows, cell phone and beeper radiation, mailing tape excess, fallen out rotted teeth (from the junk food), air pollution, coughs (from myself and other), snot from sneezes, soap from sink, water, and toilet paper mistakes that are commonly attached to my clothes will also help feed these critters. Hell, maybe I need these things after all.
you are asking for a flesh eating bacterium...
arrgh
Miko O'Sullivan
Miko O'Sullivan
My goal is less bacteria, not more. It may be just a matter of time before some killer disease wipes out half the human population.
Angelina Jolie doesnt smell like Pepperoni ?
Now I have a reason not to do laundry (besides the old smell test)... but seriously, a form of e.coli??? I hope they know what they're doing... that isn't a particularly nice organism. ;-)
just a thought - doesn't ecoli come from rotting flesh (bad hamburger for example)??? Sounds like alot of my fellow nerds to me...
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
"Cameron Diaz hates deodorant and anti-perspirant."
Well there went my dream.. thank god imaginary scenarios dont come with smell
" Wouldn't it be simpler to just put these in a deodorant stick/ball/spray? That way you can apply them direct to your sweaty bits"
Blocking your sweat glands from perspiration has been said to be one of the leading causes of breast cancer. I live in the USA and it's bloody hard to find a deoderant that is not also an anti-perspirant for ladies. I finally found one by Mennen and use it to protect me from breast cancer. Ironically, considering women are the most suseptible to breast cancer, there are numerous deoderants for men available that do not also incluce anti-perspirants.
IMHO any innovation (or product) that can work to reduce the incidents of breast cancer is worth buying. Who knows, it just may save the life of a woman you love.
Personally, I can't wait for crap-eating bacteria that live in your underwear. That'd save me the hassle of getting up in the middle of a coding session to relieve myself. Unfortunately, since THAT will never happen (and if it does, it'll never hit the market), I'm thinking sweat-eating bacteria could be applied to a more practical use: mouse gloves. I have sweaty palms, so during a late-night gaming session, I usually find myself wiping my right hand on whatever dry object I can find (don't ask) every five seconds so my grip on my mouse doesn't falter.
Go Nekkid!
There goes the only thing holding my clothes together. Maybe these new bacteria are crusty too?
It's a great idea that lets people go safe of others bodily odours, but it's no excuse for not washing. I'm a complete slob, but i'm a clean slob.
And what with all the mind-control and addiction agents the governments are feeding us who cares about the probable/possible mutations of some measly e.coli's?
We've still got Creuzfeldt-Jacobs to look forward to..
-AD ABSVRVDVS PER FVTILIS.
-By attempting the impossible we can achieve the absurd..
Actually, a Brazillian maid works quite well for me :)
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Buy our flasy new threads, with NEW, IMPROVED pheremone enhancement. These clothes will actually generate attractive scents as you wear them! etc., etc.
Selling these wouldn't be a problem. Just don't mention that your new improved process involves live bacterial cultures. (OTOH, live yoghurt sells well, so that may not be necessary.)
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
In the words of MST3K, "Well, she was going to smell like beer sooner or later."
49 20 68 61 76 65 20 74 6F 6F 20 6D 75 63 68 20 66 72 65 65 20 74 69 6D 65 2E
There would be a lot of naked hippies?
call me stupid, but i still don't get it
What if your milkweed-based clothing were infested by ravenous mutant Monarch butterfly larvae?
>Fowler hopes to reactivate them by soaking
>the milkweed fibres in additional nutrients.
Waiter, I'll have the soup and salad combo. Can I have a big bowl of beef broth too? It's for my jacket...
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
Where such bacteria could make real sense is one-time non-fabric underwear and such -- I heard that in Japan it is a usual thing.
A spray that contain these bacteria in inactive state, that can be used on any clothes (or a car seat, or whatever) could be much more practical.
A genetic mechanism that forces the bacteria to die after, say, 1e+5 generations, can be seen as a reasonable safety measure, too.
Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes
--
-- SIGFPE
PLUG PRICE="cheap"There's more random crap over at my homepage too/PLUG
The one time that the ever inane "CowboyNeal" option would actually be funny and it's not even an option.
Sigh.. I guess I'll just have to choose "Rolling Rock, or maybe it was Heineken" since it did take about 6.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
Cool! I wonder whether the bacteria's excreta will smell better or worse than the perspiration they feed on! Any thoughts on this?
Thanks to that kind of innovation now I won't have to take a shower every month, it'll probably be every three months or so :)
Since I never iron my shirts, I guess that won't be much of a problem though.
^]:wq!^M
best laugh I've had all day, thanks buddy *LOL*
Took me a second to digest it. Ah, for the days when ascii art was king. Adobe ASCIIshop anyone?
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
Since I actually wash myself minimum once a day(if ive played soccer or skateboarded that that day, I would probertly do two :o) , a dust eating parasite would be alot more interesting. Then i wouldnt have to clean my appartment all the time.. Dust sucks...
PS. Get a girlfriend, she probertly wouldnt let you run around in the same pants all the time anyway..
A question: any chance those E. coli bacteria could mutate into a harmful strain?
GreyPoopon
--
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
you're totally right... but that would be one hacked bacterial genome!
;-)
;-P
normally in the fermentation/ rot/ stinkiness process, successive cycles of creatures take over these descending paths of chemical dead-ends as you suggested from acids to alcohols to formaldehydes to carbon dioxide... as the chemical environment changes...
having said that, why hack one organism's genome? stick all these organisms together in cooperative symbiotic mode, like a lichen, just like in nature
then encapsulate them all in some sort of semi-permeable membrane/ beads and you won't have to worry about them competing with the wild bacteria
now the problem is that this becomes a real complex bio-hack... good luck!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The smell you have under your arms is not the sweat itself.
Its the excrement of the bacterias that is living under your arms and feesding on your sweat.
So if the other type of bacterias manour is smelling better it migth be a good thing :)
Or how about this:
Genemanipulate a bacteria that will eat other sweat bacteria.
Other modifcations:
Make the excrement that the bacteria produce smell better.
No mather what the choises wil be... take a shower
Ascii(64)
A few years ago, Dinson-Merrill developed a similar product in order to significantly improve their odor-eater-type shoe insert/foot desmellerizer product.
During pre-production product testing, they discovered that about 2% of the pilot program users had developed a serious allergic reaction to the bacteria. The last I heard, the product was put on the back burner - they couldn't adequately circumvent the health issue.
This seems like a nearly identical idea, and so the same health concerns would apply.
I read somewhere that Cameron Diaz hates deodorant and anti-perspirant. I am willing to bet money she will pet some of these bacteria :)
Mmmm, me wants to become sweat-eating bacteria on her now !#%
"the majority of their metabolic byproducts will still be what makes them "gross": lactic acid, butyric acid, tartaric acid, other nasty smelling compounds..."
Not necessarily, there are other compounds which can also serve as the end product of a fermentation process. For instance, alcohols. And if you choose to use more advanced organisms that engage in oxidative phosphorylation, you can go all the way to C02 + H2O.
On a different note, I'd choose something other than E. coli for this purpose. An endospore-forming bacterium would be much tougher, as you could expect at least a small fragment of the population to survive just about anything short of an autoclave.
it's my shirt, my boxers, and she's wearing 'em.
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Well, there goes the best way to get some space on the subway/bus. No more three weeks+ old B.O.
Today: "The Smartest Man In America Fixes Education System"
I wear the same pair of jeans all the time and I'm sure they have bacterial colonies living in them
I'm sure they'd rather live in vacuum if they had a choice.
Incidentally, does anyone know just how close to the skin these clothes have to be? I don't want to have to have a permanent wedgie when it's warm just because my ass sweats a lot.
Wait, I guess that's the same as Option 5: "That homeless guy on the subway".
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
bacteria are bacteria are bacteria...
...but there is a reason why these compounds are natural chemical dead-ends... they are energetic dead-ends as well: it's breaking the second law of thermodynamics: you can't have the bacteria churning out more energetic chemical processes than the energy you give them... there's a reason lactic acid is a dead-end chemical street: the bacteria have evolved to extract as much energy from a chemical source as they could, and they have, and they do... there's no getting around that energetic roadblock...
yeah sure, you can engineer them to manufacture some phermones, or lilac scent, or febreeze, or whatever as a byproduct of their metabolic efforts, but:
the majority of their metabolic byproducts will still be what makes them "gross": lactic acid, butyric acid, tartaric acid, other nasty smelling compounds...
it's hard to simply edit these compounds out of the bacterial output, as these compounds are simply the natural chemical dead-ends to well-established bacterial metabolic pathways.
"well, you can engineer other processes to destroy these compounds as well"
plus, like any other ecosystem: the savannah, a coral reef, your intestines, there is a bitter battle for survival raging.
it has been proven that bacteria without antibiotic resistance successfully displace and kill off bacteria with antibiotic resistance in the wild... why? because to defend themselves against antibiotics, resistant bacteria are exerting a hefty metabolic toll in order to survive... without antibiotics to worry about, those bacteria who are free to devote all of their metabolic efforts to survival and reproduction will outcompete their metabolically-hobbled cousins...
so what do you think will happen in these milkweed clothes when mr. i-make-phermones bacteria functioning at 70% metabolic maximum due to it's genetically-engineered burden is forced to compete for food with mr. wild-as-i-wanna-be bacteria functioning at 100% metabolic maximum? hmmph
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it