Slashdot Mirror
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."
Now when people come back into my store and complain about their shopping bags breaking, I can tell them why!
You know what would be cool is instead of just saying ooh I wonder if it eats plastic too and finding out it does, though that's definitely stll amazing...put some bacteria that are at least close to maybe being able to eat X substance and put it on the surface of that substance and blast them with regular, mild radiation every day until some mutate until a colony mutates and starts eating the rubber/plastic/whatever. I've heard very little about forcing mutations randomly to try and get a given result but it seems like a good idea to me. I mean if this kid had found that the bacteria couldn't eat plastic, I doubt anyone would have given him the funding and stuff to try and alter them so they do. And yes, before anyone posts it, keep the test area damn well sealed too so supergerms don't get out (duh!).
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
a top secret death squad under the auspices of the upper corporate echelon at ikea have been dispatched from stockholm to deal with this potentially profit decimating threat
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Actually, the bacteria was introduced after the teen discovered the cure for cancer in a plastic dish; however, before the cure could be analyzed in order to replicate it, the bacteria ate the dish and the cure. The Associated Press quoted the boy saying "God damnnit!"
- 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
Shouldn't this be tagged, "Mutant 59"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Pedler
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
right now we're putting more CO2 into the atmosphere that we're taking out - largely by digging it up out of the ground and burning it. Plastic bags are largely made from fossil carbon - surely we're better off sequestering this carbon (by dropping it in a landfill, or down an old oil well, or coal mine) than we are breaking it down presumeably to CO2 which is released into the atmosphere
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.
"...you came up with an answer to 29 million tons of non-biodegradeable plastic being added to landfills each year, so here's 10 grand. Yep, 10 big ones. Oh, and go get yourself a bit of education."
Since the bacteria produce heat as a byproduct in addition to a negligible amount of CO2, perhaps this could be used to replace older trash incinerators to act as a type of greenhouse, with the heat coming not from trapped infrared, but from the microbial waste.
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.
Well, the US patent process certainly hasn't stopped anyone from patenting the human genome.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
The Andromeda Strain.
as if anybody hadn't thought of THAT one yet!
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.
My web domain.
The idea is not to have a plastic-decomposing machine. The problem to be solved is how to deal with plastic that gets buried in a landfill. Even though many people today do a conscious effort to recycle, it's still not enough, there will always be some plastic in the garbage.
With this invention, you just spray the surface with water containing the bacteria, it seeps in and decomposes the old buried plastic, and then the landfill place can be reclaimed for other uses.
So if I die because of some patented gene that caused heart failure, can the company who owns that patent be sued for wrongful death? On a very basic level, it sounds like the companies who patent these genes might say they own a part of me. On another note, I would argue that evolution itself owns the original patents on every single gene out there, and by definition these patents could never expire.
But that's just me.
I'm not a climate scientist, but I did work in a paleoclimatology lab for awhile in college. I think the main problem I have with the global warming discussion -- like almost any other so-called "controversial" topic -- is that it rapidly becomes an argument among extremists.
NO ONE can deny that C02 is a greenhouse gas. The discussion should therefore be "how much is our CO2 output affecting global climate?" Instead the argument ends up being a battle between people claiming it is a "wildly extrapolated hypothesis" and people saying we're on the verge of a runaway greenhouse effect that will turn Earth into Venus.
I think it is undeniable that the climate is changing -- it has ALWAYS changed. There were times in the history of the Earth when there were ice caps extending almost to the equator. There were also times when there were probably NO permanent ice caps. Climate changes.
Likewise, it's fairly undeniable that increasing the total volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will tend to push the climate in a warmer direction. If our natural cycle is one of warming, it will accelerate the warmth. If we're in a cooling period, it will decelerate the cooling.
Now if we would just start with that framework, we could have a worthwhile discussion about what type of climate cycle we're in right now, and to what degree our output of CO2 (and the methane produced by the ridiculously large population of cattle we've domesticated) will affect that cycle.