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Could we consider this to be a dilemma of preservation?
Let’s take something innocuous and specific, like a package of food. We want it to be airtight and safe from bacteria until a human tears it open and eats it. But once torn open, we want it to disintegrate.
Now, if we make this bacteria and allow it to spread, the same problem exists as if we were to package that food in a wooden container, or a paper container. The material is now “weak” to ambient attackers.
A moment of silence for people with plastic surgery
Oh no, my balls
How does it deal with the post digestion stuff?
Bunch of people in Hollywood getting really nervous right now.
yo thats unironically based. we need that.
If we could get it to stay in like the ocean or something then maybe that would be okay.
This could compromise the integrity of countless structures including the vast majority of pipes, electrical, and electronics and prevent us from using plastic as an inert substance to store highly reactive substances, and also storing food and drinks.
What does it excrete? I’m curious.
Edit: The bacterium will eventually convert the plastic into carbon dioxide and water. That’s both expected and somewhat disappointing.
You’d prefer they excreted gasoline and matches?
what the plastic is made of. so any molecule that contains C, H (and atoms like O and S F or N depending on the type of plastic) can be synthesized by plastic eating bacteria. so we can also make oil and fuel from it
The article states it’s ingesting Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), (C10H8O4)n
Metabolism is just fire but slower IIRC
Metabolism can definitely create useful products. Alcohol is formed from yeast metabolising sugars, for example. Same with miso paste. Hell, we can make milk without cows now via precise fermantation.
Now that is interesting. From what and how?
Water and evaporated milk
Not sure on what the inputs are, but basically bioreactors that have bacteria that are doing the same processes you’d get milk from otherwise. I’ve done ice cream and protein powder made from companies that used perfect day foods’ reactor milk. Actually was a big fan of the vegan whey protein powder, but that company died at some point
True, but it also depends on the enzymes capabilities to break things down into their smallest components.
If I ever become a rapper I’ll be known as slow fire
That would be a great name for a jazz band, I think
I’ll be known as Metabolism.
He’s not a rapper.
This is so great and so bad at the same time. We’re gonna have to go back to using tar and shit for things we actually want to last. That’s not going to be cheap…
I mean, wood already biodegrades quite readily, yet we are able to make some pretty long lasting things out of it anyway. Having a bacteria that can break down some variety of plastic doesn’t really imply that all plastic things are going to rot away like old fruit.
Is this a false equivalence?
Is the rate at which wood rots indicative of how quickly plastic would rot?
Also plastic tends to be very thin. Like if bacteria can denature 0.1mm per year that’s lots of years for a timber beam but a few months for plastic packaging.
We also cover wood in hydrocarbons to stop it from being broken down, if a bacteria can break down long hydrocarbon chains we are kind of fucked
Dry wood will last centuries without any oiling. Which is good news for timber frames because those are left untreated. As long as your house is water-tight, the frame will be fine because wood rot simlly can’t metabolize in typical indoors humidity evels.
What we typically protect wood from is water, mechanical wear, UV, and stains. But even a furniture piece will not always get treated on internal parts where wear and wood expansion are no concerns.
Tar is very problematic health-wise. Banned in some countries for this reason.
Aren’t all humans full of microplastics?
All humans are also full of bacteria
Also, microplastics
Wait. It’s just bacteria and microplastics all the way down?
yin and yang.
Don’t forget PFAS
Not just humans, IIRC micro plastics can be found in the most remote parts of the planet such as uninhabited areas of Antarctica.
Everything is, it has saturated the water cycle and is everywhere the water cycle reaches. (water cycle reaches everywhere)
Arm the site nuke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
If we play our cards right, we could have a real-life Andromeda Strain.
