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foxyfoo t1_ispscn5 wrote

They better not let these bacteria out of the lab or we are all screwed

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bradmajors69 t1_ispuid2 wrote

Reminds me of that Vonnegut book where a nifty new useful chemical called Ice 9 gets out of hand and sterilizes the planet. (IIRC)

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dunkybones t1_ispv83w wrote

Cat's Cradle is the novel you are thinking of.

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Darryl_Lict t1_isqujxt wrote

There is actually a real ice 9 known as ice IX. Fortunately it doesn't have the same characteristic as Vonnegut's version. It exists at crazy low temperatures and super high pressures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_IX

Ice exhibits at least eighteen phases (packing geometries), depending on temperature and pressure.

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majnuker t1_isq0oaz wrote

It also is reminiscent of the Andromeda Strain which rapidly mutates into being airborne and then out of being deadly/eating stuff. Fantastic book.

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skubaloob t1_isqnn6d wrote

Ice 9 was ice which froze things solid at high temperatures. Damn Army complaining about mud ended the world

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Crivos t1_isq2r3f wrote

It’s ok we keep them in Wuhan Institute of Virology

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Kp101redditer t1_ispzfg5 wrote

Lemme guess, they become alive, eat anything, and a small cat has to escape them to get out of some sewers in an abandoned cyberpunk esq. city and to do a job for some rusting robots

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Jiveturtle t1_isqg9uv wrote

Honest but probably stupid question.

If we can genetically engineer bacteria to break down plastics, why can’t we engineer bacteria to, for lack of a better term, super-photosynthesize and fix all the carbon we’ve spewed into the atmosphere into another form?

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Landmen t1_isqwq7h wrote

Algae does that quite well. Theres been a few experiments with using algae as carbon capture method.

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Matshelge t1_iss9gbd wrote

Algae bloom is maybe a good thing får out in the ocean, but bad if close to the shore.

However, testing this out is geo-engineering, and banned across the globe.

So until we get some rogue nation willing to run the tests and do the science, we will not know.

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SentientHotdogWater t1_issxftr wrote

>However, testing this out is geo-engineering, and banned across the globe.

>So until we get some rogue nation willing to run the tests and do the science, we will not know.

No, geo-engineering is not globally banned.

There have been many small scale tests of ocean seeding. It doesn't work as well as people think but it also doesn't not work.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization

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T1N7 t1_issjx8k wrote

Testing out, wether you could induce algae bloom, counts as geo-engineering? Even on a small scale?

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lacergunn t1_isr51r6 wrote

The recent breakthroughs in plastic breakdown are mostly improvements and derivatives of a naturally occurring bacteria that was discovered in 2016. Though recent advancements in machine learning make it easier to make entirely new things from scratch, a lot of genetic engineering is based in using parts that naturally evolved.

As for super-photosynthesis, it comes down to a few things, mainly growing space, environmental concerns, and the biggest hurdle of all, funding.

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MachineDrugs t1_isrrs0h wrote

Oh there are researches regarding that. But right now we can only improve photosynthesis by a few percentages. Which isn't enough

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johndeuff t1_issjx1w wrote

I saw a company doing just that and making money by selling its CO2 credits.

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blanique6 t1_iss6he9 wrote

This is like the 50th article I've seen about some bacteria or fungus or worm or some other creature that magically mystically eats all plastics and will save us from a future filled with plastic waiting to be degraded. This won't amount to anything. I guarantee it.

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izumi3682 OP t1_ispt9yq wrote

Submission statement from OP. Note: This submission statement "locks in" after about 30 minutes, and can no longer be edited. Please refer to my statement they link, which I can continue to edit. I often edit my submission statement, sometimes for the next few days if needs must. There is often required additional grammatical editing and additional added detail.

Here is the paper.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo4626

From the article.

>Plastic waste is clogging up our rivers and oceans and causing long-lasting environmental damage that is only just starting to come into focus. But a new approach that combines biological and chemical processes could greatly simplify the process of recycling it.

>...a new approach that uses a chemical process to break down mixed plastic waste into simpler chemical compounds before genetically modified bacteria convert them into a single, valuable end product could point the way to a promising new solution to our plastic crisis.

>This new hybrid technique, outlined in a recent paper in Science, builds upon previous research that showed that a mixture of different kinds of plastics could be broken down and converted into an array of useful chemicals by oxidizing them with the help of a catalyst.

The article then goes into a complex discussion of how certain genetically modified bacteria can apparently perform this "breakdown" of plastics into useful chemicals. But the article demonstrates the true promise of this technology.

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FuturologyBot t1_ispwx88 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/izumi3682:

Submission statement from OP. Note: This submission statement "locks in" after about 30 minutes, and can no longer be edited. Please refer to my statement they link, which I can continue to edit. I often edit my submission statement, sometimes for the next few days if needs must. There is often required additional grammatical editing and additional added detail.

Here is the paper.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo4626

From the article.

>Plastic waste is clogging up our rivers and oceans and causing long-lasting environmental damage that is only just starting to come into focus. But a new approach that combines biological and chemical processes could greatly simplify the process of recycling it.

>...a new approach that uses a chemical process to break down mixed plastic waste into simpler chemical compounds before genetically modified bacteria convert them into a single, valuable end product could point the way to a promising new solution to our plastic crisis.

>This new hybrid technique, outlined in a recent paper in Science, builds upon previous research that showed that a mixture of different kinds of plastics could be broken down and converted into an array of useful chemicals by oxidizing them with the help of a catalyst.

The article then goes into a complex discussion of how certain genetically modified bacteria can apparently perform this "breakdown" of plastics into useful chemicals. But the article demonstrates the true promise of this technology.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/y6l41l/scientists_engineer_bacteria_to_recycle_plastic/ispt9yq/

1

fattynuggetz t1_issgll5 wrote

What steps it from eating regular plastic that we use?

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bug_man47 t1_istb931 wrote

Is it just me or is this article completely devoid of citations and links to the original paper? Bunch of crap journalism. Gee, I wonder who paid for this research? Who could possibly benefit? Surely not petroleum companies....

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happyends t1_isr0i2h wrote

I can see a potential unintended consequence. If they release this bacteria in the wild to eat plastic which is made from oil, what is to stop it from eating the oil that is in the ground? A global irreversible oil shortage could come about.

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