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Teen Discovers Plastic-Decomposing Bacteria
ganelo writes to tell us that 16-year-old Waterloo Collegiate Institute student Danel Burd has made quite a stir with his plastic-eating bacteria discovery. For his efforts Burd won top prize at a Canada-wide science fair claiming a $10,000 prize and a $20,000 scholarship. "Tests to identify the strains found strain two was Sphingomonas bacteria and the helper was Pseudomonas. A researcher in Ireland has found Pseudomonas is capable of degrading polystyrene, but as far as Burd and his teacher Mark Menhennet know -- and they've looked -- Burd's research on polyethelene plastic bags is a first."
- He thought a of a simple problem that hadn't been solved
- He investigated the obvious avenues first
- He used the resources at his disposal instead of trying
- He chose something where success and failure would both be easy to demonstrate
This was really good science. If he keeps it up look for his name with the words "Full Professor" in front and a list of patents afterwards some time soon.The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
When I first came across it, I thought that it was an idea that needs some serious development. Plastics take up a huge amount of landfill space worldwide, and this is of use in the future.
That and recycling plastics, obviously.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
I wonder how hes going to turn that $20k into $100k so he can actually get a college degree.
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
I can't help but wonder about untindended consequences. Looking around at all the plastics, having them inadventantly eaten by bacteria would be a BAD thing.
I have been thinking along the same lines for a long time. I came to the conclusion that landfills are, in a weird way, good for the planet in the long run, if filled with carbon-containing trash - this is, as you noted, a carbon-sequestering mechanism of sorts.
But this seems even less politically correct to say, than that nuclear plants are more ecologically sound than coal plants, so I don't expect your post to be modded very high. Slashdot can be extremely PC.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Well, the US patent process certainly hasn't stopped anyone from patenting the human genome.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
What can possibly go wrong ?
Does anybody really think that the discovery and propagation of voracious plastic eating bacteria is going to be a good thing ?
Your pc could just fall apart, the keyboard will disintegrate, as will the mouse, the monitor, the power leads feeding the hard drives etc etc. Backup discs ? LOL.
Sure they'll promise that it won't escape and only be used for good purposes, but that worked so well with cats in New Zealand, rabbits and dogs in Australia, and numerous other creatures in countless other situations.
People hailed the invention of plastic materials for housing, because of woodworm and termites, and now we want to propagate their replacements.
Looks like I'll have to build myself a steam punk pc out of cut glass or oak or something.
This sounds like an excellent high school project, combined with crappy PR and lazy Journalism.
but as far as Burd and his teacher Mark Menhennet know -- and they've looked
Yeah right, so googling 'biodegradation Sphingomonas polyethene OR polyethylene' doesn't return any hits in Canada.
*sigh* It's called a positive feedback loop. Increased temperatures do result in increased CO2 levels. Increased CO2 levels then result in increased temperatures. And thus the cycle continues upwards until something causes it to stop. The real big giveaway is that the temperature increase always accelerates as CO2 concentrations goes up.
This is a simple laboratory experiment that anyone can do. Heck, they did it on MythBusters.
And yes, it's true that natural processes put out a lot more CO2 than humans do. That's not the point. Natural processes are more or less balanced; what nature puts out, nature absorbs. What we are doing is upsetting the balance so that there isn't enough capacity. One of Dicken's characters said "Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 six, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result misery." - his point was that all you need to do is live just a little beyond your means to cause big problems.
Heck, it doesn't even matter if we _are_ the main cause or not. If we're not the main cause, we're still contributing to the problem at least a bit. Personally, I'd rather be the cause - it would imply that we could fix it.
"Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
..but do you not get the bags because they cost you a few pence, or does the cost remind you of the environmental cost and *that* stops you?
Max.