These Worms Eat Plastic. We Can Use That.
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2023
- These worms can eat plastic, and researchers are trying to use them to completely change what happens to plastic trash... including turning it into some very surprising things. Here's what's happening.
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"Hmmm, this vanilla ice cream is good. Where did you get it?"
"A Gatorade bottle."
😂😂 and spits out after hearing that.
@@riseshine2894 Could be worse, could be from a period cup.
@@allent.g560 damn 💀
As long as its clean Ill eat it
@NileRed enters the chat
NileRed : “Turning my shopping bag collection into vanilla ice cream”
If it's really going to be NileRed, something also needs to explode gratuitously
And accidentally create tear gas
It must also require a fume hood
You sir have won the internet for today 😂😂😂
I can hear him 😂
"There is plastic in my blood"
"No, it's in your food."
Edit: Love how people are making a big deal about this like I'm some boomer. Literally just a joke.
So therefore it’s in both lol
So nothing changed
no. it's your plastic behavior and attitude.
looks like someone skipped their chemistry classes.
We are now building worm resistant plastics.
"This is the most delicious ice cream I've ever had. What's the secret ingredient?"
"Worm poop."
“This cookie is magnificent! What did you put in it?”
“Middle school soap dispenser.”
Not too much different than eating, honey.
Worm poop flavour 😂
It was originally from Beaver anal glands. I’d rather have the recycled worm poop.
Worm pop sounds alot better ingredient than the chemical they will be creating with the pop for us to eat
Breaking news: Florida man raises an army of worms to turn kardashians into ice cream 🍦
Underrated coment 🤣🤣🤣
TOP COMMENT
💀💀💀
Imagine a Florida man making a water gun that melts plastics and just using it
@@methane5211wouldn’t be a water gun lol
From what I recall, the reason why this solution isn’t super widespread already is because it only works for specific types of plastic so evidently there’s a lot more research that needs to be done to allow this to work on a larger scale
Well she talked about Polyethylene which is one of the most used plastics, so it would already have a quite impressive impact
Well, polyethylene is still pretty common so it's a step in the right direction I guess
Just wait until they're genetically modified. Still, it's just one alternative, they all work together
Every single day there's always new awesome inventions but I barely hear it actually getting implemented, sometimes it even has to contain crime in it like the guy who invented water fueled car.
@@mkctao3815 it’s been a couple years since I studied this so I don’t remember every detail, but I think the thing is that it’s not pure polyethylene that’s used in most products, it’s a mixture of various plastics so it’s still difficult for microorganisms to process.
Scientist: Beware of microplastics.
Also Scientist: Yummy microplastics.
I already wanted to do a biochem &genetics degree (especially the course with a year in industry), this is just cementing this! I want to help with things like this in the future
Go for it! I’m a physics major with a passion for helping with the energy transition! Not only is the work rewarding but you will get a very rewarding job too! Not everyone needs to do STEM but I always highly encourage those who consider it!
Same lol, going into college next year and hopefully biotech/biochem
Awesome ❤
Bon appetite
I'm am actually doing my thesis on this topic, and although really fascinating there's still much work to do, there's some major issues around the physical composition of polyethylene that creates cristalline regions of the polymer that are not degraded by any enzyme.
So we definitely need help with that 😂 I hope you a brilliant future :)
These worms be contributing more to society than most humans.
Everything contributes more to society then most humans
😂😂😂😂 got that right
Who make them or put some new dna 🤔 not human?
Fr
Fr, will calling someone a worm even be offensive anymore?
It's all fun and games until you get a worm infestation on your old video games and vinyl records.
Reminds me of the sf novel "mutant 59"
The reality is any bacteria or organism could be really dangerous to modern society, especially if the GM it.
or worse most electronic pcbs are plastic
@@harenterberge2632is it good? I'm looking for good, classic (pre-2000) sci-fi novels. Thanks
Better than them turning ot into a bacteria. Imagine having to sanitize your grocery bags just in case it spreads to your console. Becaude that bacteria def not gonna be contained for long
this is literally how the videogame stray starts
First thing i thought from the bacteria
Sounds like a game which story suggests that some creatures were going to eat plastic waste but instead started eating metals - Stray 2022
"Wow, this vanilla cake is delicious. Where'd you get it?"
"A water bottle digested by a worm"
That sticky good stuff is sweet. Where did you get it?
It's from the nursery of a bug.
Worm poop.
@@gardeninginthedesert delicious
At least it was digested
The magic of chemistry.
I love that research is really taking bugs and fungi and really boosting them to help restore the balance. Feels right to me, rather than creating more problems.
Problems will come 😃
Humans will overcome😊
Mighty problem will come😮
@@INDberlin 😅 Mighty people will overcome...again 😂
when you mentioned that I had a mindblown moment, this is the way, we know the way!!
'hey mommy, why does this ice cream taste so good?"
*"oh, it was a water bottle"*
"Well honey, it used to be a trash bag"
I just hope that all these biological solutions to plastic waste doesn't just encourage manufacturers and consumers to produce more single use disposable plastics. I know it's unavoidable at this time for certain industries, but the point of having these worms, and fungi, and plastic waste retrieval systems is to cut down on plastics, not generate more. It's a breakthrough for sure, but I'd like to know that most plastics are being phased out in favor of reusable materials or biodegradable compounds.
It’s just crazy how most of the solutions for the biggest problems in the world are present in the simplest of things
Frrrr but only shown and discovered in complex, in depth research
It's always cool and funny how science kees relearning that nature holds the secrets to solving our issues lol.
A worm is far from simple.
Most human solutions to human created problems, end up creating new problems that people realize decades later.
ikr mother nature is so wild and full of wonders
"These worms can eat plastic!"
*Gets flashbacks of zurk pests in Stray*
I'm watching a stream of stray right now-
literally
FR
Only reason why I checked the comments was to find this lol
My thoughts exactly
I thought they were just going to dunk the worms in with the plastic waste, but I guess this makes more sense...
Ahh yes, I definitely want to eat plastic-vanilla flavored ice-cream. ✨DELICIOUS✨
Why are people missing the part where this is literally the shit of the worms. I don’t care if it tastes like vanilla!
@kta9255 alot of the raspberry flavored stuff you eat is from the anal glands of beavers 😂 the richest coffee beans in the world are extracted from poop. Horse manure is used to help grow many vegetables. Eggs are periods. Relax, its fine
@@kta9255 You do know that vanillin can also be found in beaver anus right
I know, right? This is why food labeling is important. So I can choose to eat Vanilla from Beans, not broken down plastic.
fearmongering like this is why solutions like this never happen. it is the EXACT SAME MOLECULE as the normal flavoring in your ice cream. you could spend forever with plastic derived vanillin and natural vanillin with a spectroscope and electron microscope and never be able to tell them apart
Now we need them to be aquatic so they can help with the ocean
Vanilla flavored sea water
@@dustint770no longer that salt in your mouth when u dive. good thing. i approve
@@dustint770delicious
You really don't want to let them loose in the environment. They'd start eating the trash, but then they'd also be eating ships in the middle of the ocean. It would be the environment's worst nightmare.
Bound to happen eventually. Natural selection would heavily be in the favor of any organism able to digest plastic. There is so much of it and nothing to eat it. They'd be having a plastic feast.
Maybe we can artificially produce those enzymes like we make insulin and eliminate worms from the equation
money, bro.
No, the bacteria are needed to break them down
I'm pretty sure we can, its the temperature at which the enzyme needs to degrade the plastic (50 degrees celsius) that is the problem.
Curious for more ... look to this article "Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization" in nature.
Why?
@@re0798because it can take a lot, like a LOT of worms to be effective, so it would be more efficient to just use the enzymes
These are great developments, though we do have to make sure they're not a self-sustaining population/enzyme source given the inevitable grey goo scenario where they get into the wild and all plastic gets more bugs on it than a lettuce patch in your garden after a rainstorm.
We should just create a plastic eating fungi so that plastic will go through the same decomposition process as biological things. The plastic holding your strawberries possibly might expire the same time the fruits do.
No need for mass worms when we can already likely mass produce the enzymes themselves, it’s the same way we make antibodies for pregnancy tests and such
@@jclive2860no your idea would lead to all plastic on earth being even junkier junk, if it rots even quicker that defeats the purpose of engineering synthetic materials in the first place
And doesn’t that mean micro plastics are being created even quicker and spread even better around, now through a worm? And Into our food chain?
@@jclive2860You do realize we don’t create life don’t you? We can manipulate existing life and use it for our benefit but we don’t create it. These worms already existed in nature and we simply discovered them and what they do. They can’t escape into nature because that’s where they came from. We can’t create but could possibly discover a fungus that eats plastic. Over 20 years ago we discovered that there’s 3 kinds of bacteria that eat oil. Plastics are made from oil by the way. After the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we were shocked when all of the oil mysteriously disappeared. We eventually discovered these bacteria and the fact they ate oil. Before this discovery doomsayers were predicting the end of the world and all life because of the oil spill. lol, I guess nothing changes except which fear they use to manipulate the masses with.
Now THAT'S recycling... 👏 👏 👏
Never in my life did I ever think that I'd hear someone say that plastic waste can be turned into vanilla ice cream 🤯
Here's to you, Mother Earth 😊🍦🌎
Earth comes from what?
Atom? Atom comes from what ?
Electron?
Electron come from what?
No answer for while though car came from what? Materials? And materials come from molecules and atoms ! No answer. Car is made by chance and nothing.
World and all things No Man made nor anything as thing logic.
You should check out the several bacteria that eat oil. We discovered them over 20 years ago when they ate all of the oil from the largest spill in history.
Nile red be taking notes right now.
I turned plastic in ice cream
Nile Red be taking down her phone# right now
i think im lucky cuz i got to be the 1k liker
it was at 999 before :)
@@mussanteher phone?
@@ManiHehe phone number
A vanilla icecream made from a fanta bottle boutta hit different 💀💀
and made in the intestine of a worm.
Orange sherbet up I’m dis bih
guys this is essentially breaking bad we all ingest some random chemicals then next thing you know we’re onto the walking dead
Everyone talking about Stray like this isn't almost exactly the plot of Red Planet. Only difference is the worms aren't native to Mars.
Nature having the answer to human problems, gotta love it
humanity IS also part of nature.
@@simonalemseged4613well then I guess nature also made some problems
@@LORDMM. yeah.... but is it really a problem if the problem is part of the solution?
@@simonalemseged4613 Fundamentally, if there is no problem there is no solution.
@@-rya1146 exactly sir. so IF a problem has a solution. that makes the problem part of the solution. neither can't exist with out one.
Oh my gosh I was at a conference years ago and spoke to someone presenting research on this!! Like much earlier stages, more of the fact that these worms were indeed breaking down plastics. It's so cool to see how far that has gotten!!
I remember seeing this news years ago in an articleand how it was a possibility. I thought it was cool that we have a solution that is possible
IKR! I read a paper article on this years back, I thought the same!
@@kn20231 I’m not the OP but I tried to do some research. I couldn’t find when there was a convention about it but the earliest research study is from April 2017. It’s called Polyethylene bio-degradation by caterpillars of the wax moth Galleria mellonella
Remember the little game called STRAY? I don’t think we should be advertising those
When vanilla is your favorite ice cream…
It is just amazing to see that mother nature still gives us the answers to the problems we create. 🌳
Its almost like she's asking for help...
@@jaybird0312awh thats a sad but probably true thought :[
Actuall she doesn't need to ask for help she could just wipe us all out in her well known wrath. And it would be all over just like that.
Arent these worms genetically modified by humans?
@@adithyachandrathilakan9688we do have natural disasters and rn specifically we have global warming
This is why Bug type pokemons are the goat
Everyone gangsta until 5000 years go by and an orange cat fails parkour
Finally somebody else other than stray animals will eat plastic
This gives me some Stray vibes
same
FRRR but at least it's coming from an already existing creature? If I remember correctly, the scientists in the game made the chemical first, then it evolved to be the zurks
YESS I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING
Same here.
fr
This is literally the plot to Stray.
I was just about to say 😂
Dooooonnnnn’t think we want that happening…
The cat game?
😂true
@@jackb3822 yep! It’s set in a dystopian setting and find out it became that way because they made an organic organism that can eat garbage. It eventually evolved to eat anything, including humans which is why in the game there are no humans, only robots.
THank you Cleo.. I occasionally watch your short movies for interest in space but for many years, myself and some very clever friends debate our lifespan based on plastics interfering with out food chain, our ability to dispose and most of all securing a legacy for our children. This is early but really fascinating. THank You.
Oh nice, those are the worms I fed my geckos as treats.
Oh lorddddd. The microplastics community is about to have a field day with this one. 😂
Frr lmfao
Actually, I don't believe there are any microplastics. The worms eat EVERYTHING by decomposing the plastic.
the microplastics community??
@@Fe-go2jwpeople who think too much about plastic packaging and such. it can also be sorta connected to “crunchy, super natural” based individuals.
These worms wont help get rid of the microplastics in your body, so no
We’re about to have stray zurks in real life
Finally, someone with enough gaming knowledge
I was literally about to comment that lmao
I was legit thinking this too
so true
Was just about to comment that ^ ^
I can see it now
“Turning shopping bag into ice cream *emotional*”
ya'all did dirty to my favourite ice cream favour 💔
I don’t know about using it in our food products or even skin products. But I do like the fact that they can decompose plastic within days that’s amazing.
I mean, if the resulting products can be made pure (very likely) then their origin is not significant.
Uh... What's wrong with it? There are people that drink coffee that's literally picked from mongoose and elephant droppings. The process of making it into cosmetics and flavoring would get rid of impurities better than roasting dropping beans.
@@re0798 I would rather have my food natural then have plastic droppings. Look up how plastic is effecting sperm count for men
@@re0798also this reminds me of the snail goo cosmetics from uh France? From eating them to wearing them on their face... Idk what people is thinking. Consumerism is crazy.
Don't wanna be a downer but how many tons of vanillin do we need every year 😅
"Make microplastics great again"
And consuming it like medicines and flavours?😮😮😮😮😮 god 😢
It's broken down on a molecular level, resulting in a solution of different compounds. Microplastic is the result of plastic getting ground down to a microscopic level, but it is still the same compound.
I wonder if the enzyme could be made into a supplement that could get rid of any micro plastics in the body?
I'm sure that this "plastic worm shit ice cream" will be an expensive delicacy at first
Accelerated evolution sounds like a sci-fi apocalypse movie waiting to happen but I do hope this can help a lot of things
Fun fact, Madagascar produces about 75% of the worlds Vanilla beans (originally from Mexico but replanted in Madagascar without the supporting infrastructure). Because of the lack of supporting infrastructure/ecosystems, iirc, they are slowly losing arable land for Vanilla and we might run out soon. This sounds like a potential fix for plastic while also supplying us vanillin.
Fun fact, you don't need vanilla to make vanillin.
:s
Artificial Vannilin is already widely used.
Vanillin is just one component of vanilla pods so it'd be a shame if it were lost.
I'm not sure how many millions of tons of plastic we throw away every year, but I'm imagining a LOT of ice-cream.
The mealworms are actually a really good source of protein and nutrition. They can grow from food scraps and turned into a flour or fed to chickens or galapia fish farms.
The mealworms were able to be fed polystyrene which is one of the least recyclable substances, and the worms are still edible and don't contain traces of the Plastics.
The frass or processed poop is still toxic but is simply neutralised into neutral chemicals from there.
The mealworms don't grow from eating the polystyrene but they are still edible and can still breed.
Speaking of polystyrene, I am super excited by the development of expanded polypropylene as a polystyrene alternative. Ive seen slurpee cups at 7-11 made from the stuff, and recently at work, we got a package with polypropylene styrofoam padding.
I know recycling isnt great, but if we can transition to polypropylene, that's a step up from polystyrene.
Wait, aren't those waxworms as shown in the videos?
Suddenly the Kardashians are gonna start their own brand of vanilla icecream
Your voice has a hypnotizing effect!
Thanks for this interesting content.
Imagine Plastic Icecream 💀
No need to imagine it, go to your grocery store and find artificial vanilla flavored ice cream
Margerine - butter replacement is said to be one molecule away feom plastic...💀
But don't mistake that unmelting ice cream for literal plastic (the one viral associated with China I think). The main cause of that is something like a xantham(?) glue thingy.
@@stuartd9741one molecule could be massively different, I think you mean 1 atom, however that's not true either, it's actually incredibly similar to butter in composition just with slightly different chain lengths
Lots of vanillin nowadays is produced from wood (lignin). I don't see the problem with using plastic as the starting point.
"This vanilla ice cream has an interesting aftertaste, how did you make it?"
"Kim Kardashian"
"ooh this vanilla ice cream is good, where'd it come from?"
"Well I fed my bottle of gatorade to some magots and made some ice cream"
I like these stories because they make me have faith that everything is gonna be okay :)
A certain cat related video game has already warned us about doing this- 💀
Stray?
THE ZURKSS
Exactly what I was thinking about...
What was in it? I just really didn't like the gameplay, so I can't tell what the story was about
@@moonpony7490some scientists made a creature of some sort that was able to decompose waste like plastic, but after humanity dies out no one is left to keep it in check and they eveolve into this weird blobish animal capable of eating almost everything. Thats what i think happened. Not sure if im remebering that right
Great info. Thanks Natalie Portman!
What? That’s not Natalie Portman…
Lmfao I said the same thing 😂😂
😭😭😭
@@senordinosaur66woosh
Her real name is Natalie Hershlag btw.
Feels like some of the lines for sidequests assume you will only get them after Peter has the symbiote - or maybe it’s a minor bug that they mapped to the “aggressive” audio without satisfying the right conditions
"Next thing you know, you're eating your own rollerblades"
Bill Burr
Let's hope they don't eat the plastic while still in use.
Came here to say this.
Termites, Plastic Edition
Barbie’s bed got bed bugs..
Everything good untill those worms decide to live in your house.
"we're working on getting rid of all the plastic so there's less microplastics in your food... But we're actually gonna be able to put it back in your food!" 😂😂😂
When she said "vanilla" I immediately had flashbacks to the time NileRed made grape flavoring and hot sauce out of gloves...
Ah yes. The real life iteration of STRAY.
I swear, if I find out my ice cream has plastic worm dookie in it...
Ah yes, my favorite ice cream flavor: plastic.
They better not turn into those things from Stray😂
We have to Natalie Portman at home:
Lmao, didn't notice till now and now I can't stop seeing it😂
She literally looks like her lmao
This sounds like a precursor to worms eating us
Mom: "what did you eat today in school"
"I ate plastic today"
I think Stray showed how bugs eating rubbish could be bad
Ohh, the enemies! Forgot the name
@@chie970 zurks
I wouldn't rely on media to determine what is real and what isn't
they are designed to be thrilling and entertaining
on a side note, if we do use bugs to do this.. we do have no idea how they will evolve and said consequences .
@@Nerosii right
It seems silly to completely overlook possible solutions to the plastic problem just bc of a literal video game lol
@@Sn1ckerdoodlesignoring possible dangers for the same reason is just as silly
This is the ideal studybreak! Just a bit of good/interesting news to brighten up everyones day:)
Will you still think the same, when that worm infestation will eat your electronics (TV, game consoles, CDs, DVDs, game cartridges, your plastic furniture, plastic car parts, house parts). I think, it's really bad idea.
They should just produce the ferment, dissolving the plastic, instead of breeding such worms.
Instructions unclear: now I’m putting plastic worms on my ice cream
"including vanillin, which is found in vanilla flavouring" yo eating plastic just got up to a new level 💀
I love videos where its not about how bad everything around me is. I can hardly handle myself, i dont need to know how much worse its getting. I hope to help more
We are constantly creating wonders indeed, check AOH 1996 a potetially huge breakthrough in medicine to combat cancer cells as well as new tests on a material that could have super conducting capabilities at room temperature. Of course these are not set in stone but an optimistic sight into the future if just for a bit.
😂😂😂 I’m rehabilitating an orphaned male American robin fledgling and he tried to get to my phone when he saw the worms 😂😂😂 Just today he started looking for food on his own and I feel so proud. His name is Toki Warbeak and he’s just precious. I haven’t rehabbed a bird in years and this little guy is reminding me why I loved it so much.
Why are you so much cooler than me
I've never rehabbed a bird or any other animal (as far as I can remember). I always wondered how ppl that do always seem to keep finding animals in need of rehab. Do u havta break it's wing or leg or whatever yourself? Or are you just 'lucky' enough to find them that way?
I don’t get why it’s so easy for me to find animals in distress. I spend a mass majority of my time outdoors fishing, hiking, and camping. I come across all sorts of wildlife and sometimes they need a bit of help. People in my community also know that if they come across an animal in need, they can contact me. It’s super awesome to come outside my house in the morning to have my coffee with squirrels and birds that I’ve rehabbed and released that stick around the property. I love animals and it’s the best reward to watch these goofballs play and grow.
Ngl I thought you were talking about Robin from Batman in the first half of your comment lol
That's such a bad ass name for a bird
I love how most people don’t realize almost all vanilla flavored things is artificial flavoring and not real vanilla . Vanilla is the second most expensive spice so it’s not actually used that much. Artificial vanilla is currently made from wood pulp, so this is really not a crazy idea.
Nilered laughing menacingly in corner rn.
stray 2: the zurks comeback is out this year:
Ffr
These dude really gonna become zurks fr like that's the whole thing in stray the scientists used bugs like these which evolved lol
Oh the zurks!!!
We need your channel in a day and age like ours. Thank you for always brightening my day.
Yes, like nothing could go wrong with making their enzymes more potent!
Stray players know what this is gonna turn into…
Stray is becoming reality (If you know, you know)
One of my favourite games
True
They gonna evolve into a mega hivemind lol
Clearly a bad idea in the making.
Beat me to it
In college I worked on a project that aimed to upcycle plastics into oils and lubricants. We were trying to utilize quantum dots as a catalyst to do this. It's a pretty cool idea
How did quantum dots turn plastics and oils into lubricants? I thought they turned light into, like, a specific color of light. Where's the chemical reaction there?
This reminds me a lot like… *stray*..
We need 9000 quadrillion of these worms in order to break down all the plastics we have.
How stray started be like:
I thought of the same thing...
omg underrated comment
Stray was SO good 👍🏾
Stray started?
@@anotherSavingGrace the game “stray”
This is amazing! However I cannot help but imagine this turning into what happened in the game "Stray"
this is basically what happened with wood. the first "plastic" of the world.
I was thinking about the same thing it seemed similar to the game ''Stray''
BRO SAME
Looking for this comment man
I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THAT 💀💀
I feel like this is a good time for gmo worms to start in forgotten landfills
Keep that out of my ice cream. I'm already eating bug legs, I don't need whatever this is too.
A lab that I'm joining this fall for my senior thesis project works on plastic degradation using enzymes. Super excited and so ready to learn first hand!
Oh congratulations! That sounds amazing.
A while after you join it, can u give us an update on how everything is going?
I think this is the research we should bump most of our resources into, because if it works, we can just get back to using plastic things without a second thought.
We can, just don't throw it into the ocean my American friend
Not American but US dumps waay less into ocean than Philippines, China, India etc.
@@arturkeerd3361 Yes, but thats only because the Americans miss the water when unloading their trucks. Never seen a country so hell-bent on not taking care of their waste and just chug it in a landfill. I live in Northern Europe, I've never even seen a landfill - and I actually don't think we have any.
Btw, the US exports most of its waste, so even though it might be thrown into the ocean by another country - it's still American trash.
@@arturkeerd3361 i don't think so. Can u check the data? Moreover, even if it is so, US can afford alternatives, but developing countries currently cannot afford them.
@@athimohamstudios1246 Also some thought material - US surely produces a lot of waste and sure, it exports a lot of it outside of the US, but that is only because countries like China and India are buying and then dumping it to make a bit of profit. It all boils down to mismanagement and corruptions with people not doing their jobs. If the buying ("developing") countries had their house in order, it would surely put more pressure on the US to also clean up for themselves.
Anyways, thats my two cents on the topic.
Have a good one :)
As a beekeeper, I never thought there'd come a day I'd be thankful to wax moths.
You didn't exaggerate it being recycled to surprising things, I was for real surprised that plastic can become ice cream.
Goddamn, as a materials engineer, that’s cool asf
I feel optimistic about the future of humanity everytime i see some video like this... Though we still have a long way to go.
What people tend to forget about plastics like polyethylene is that its just carbon and hydrogen that forms very long chains. Both of those chemicals individually have countless uses. So if we can find ANY way of breaking down these long chains, there is litterally no almost no limit to what we can recreate using this.
Rip Kardashians when these worms discover them
Isn’t it incredibly concerning if this bacteria gets out? I’m imagining all of our plastic products, or plastic / PVC pipes and water tubing in our houses and walls, suddenly starting to rot for the first time as bacteria can now consume them.
Its not a bacteria, its the enzyme alone which degrades the plastics. Enzymes are small marco-molecules. So the bacteria produces the enzyme which is then used to degrade the plastic. So the enzyme must be manufactured.
If your curious, you can google "Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization" for the full article. Although its very heavy on synthetic biology vocabulary.
@@unperfectbryceBacteria are known for conjugation. There's also bacteriophages. Could the ability to produce this enzyme propagate to other bacteria via one of these vectors?
@@shackamaxon512 Hmmm , I'm not sure, that's a good thought. I would think that this enzyme is not naturally occurring after multiple rounds of directed evolution, so the bacteria itself I would think would loose some of its evolutionary fitness. But really I'm not sure.
For context I am a phd computational biologist. What that means is I know enough to comment on youtube video, but not enough to write a peer reviewed article about it. Haha.