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Fungi found in Amazon eats plastic, could solve world waste problem

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P

Platy

Member
Devolution said:
This is why those places need to be protected.
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Actualy if it was THAT protected probably the fungus would not need to evolve to eat plastic ..


...and probably people would add so much burocracy to enter in the forest that probably the students would think twice in entering there =P
 
E

El Sloth

Banned
You know what's depressing? That the first thing I think of is the online retailer and not the forest when I see the word Amazon.
 
S

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
This is really sad, but I thought the title was saying that there was fungi in all plastic material shipped from Amazon.com...
 
F

Foxy Fox 39

Banned
lEQdP.png
 
C

C.Dark.DN

Banned
Didn't you see the commercials? If we all buy glad garbage bags with reduced plastoc, we'll solve a lot of the problem immediately.
 
D

Daithi

Neo Member
As they say "the ability to efficiently degrade and utilize PUR as the sole carbon source when grown anaerobically", does that tell us anything about how it behaves aerobically (as in will it still eat plastic in oxygen)?
 
S

SouthernDragon

Member
cajunator said:
Exactly.
Human's can create waste of all kinds, but Nature finds ways to dispose of it. We'll kill ourselves before we ever come close to killing the Earth off.
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Then... let's save ourselves? I think the fear is that we'll turn Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland, not that we'll actually physically destroy the Earth.
 
U

Ultratech

Member
It's all well and good until it mutates into a plastic-eating monster. Pray it doesn't get a taste for human flesh...

Pretty cool though. Amazon is full of crazy shit you'd never think of.
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Machine said:
I've seen this movie. It's all good until the bacteria gets out and starts eating the plastic in our cars, airplanes, computers, etc. Suddenly jets are falling from the sky, cars fall apart, and our smart phones aren't so smart anymore.
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If it eats my Blu-ray collection, then I'm going to be really pissed at these scientists.
 
S

squidyj

Member
Dude, what's even better is you don't even need to put the cells on the plastic, they emit an enzyme that causes the plastic to degrade.
 
W

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Further proof that we're even lucky to be alive. The earth will always be fine, we're the ones who are fucked if it ever turns on us.
 
V

VALIS

Member
cajunator said:
Exactly.
Human's can create waste of all kinds, but Nature finds ways to dispose of it. We'll kill ourselves before we ever come close to killing the Earth off.
Click to expand...

You've just convinced me to buy a Hummer. Thanks, holmes.


couldn't even afford a go-kart right now
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
well i would be hesitant to use this except in very enclosed places.

this fungi would have a very... bad effect on most things if it was out of hand.
 
P

Platy

Member
Reminds me of the awesome George Carlin

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!
[...]
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic…asshole.
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D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Finds like these may be spor-adic, but they certainly are interesting. Investing in practical reproduction of the anaerobic fungi and setting it loose in controlled environments would be the best way to control and manage the fungi—can't imagine what any schemers are thinking of, trying to eat up planes and car chassis'. With the Earth, anything is possible.
 
Y

yencid

Member
produce it in a lab. then it will reproduce and run wild and eat things and then the fallout happens.

davepoobond said:
well i would be hesitant to use this except in very enclosed places.

this fungi would have a very... bad effect on most things if it was out of hand.
Click to expand...
FALLOUT
 
E

East Lake

Member
Platy said:
Reminds me of the awesome George Carlin
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I've hated this quote since I first heard it years ago. He even mentions Radon gas as something people are paranoid about, which is only behind smoking as a cause for lung cancer. People sit in their homes, ingest an odorless radioactive gas and then fucking die because nobody knew or bothered to test their basement. The notion that everything we do is okay since the earth will subduct our heap of shit in a hundred million years is really sad. It's not about the earth it's about people.
 
S

SouthernDragon

Member
East Lake said:
I've hated this quote since I first heard it years ago. He even mentions Radon gas as something people are paranoid about, which is only behind smoking as a cause for lung cancer. People sit in their homes, ingest an odorless radioactive gas and then fucking die because nobody knew or bothered to test their basement. The notion that everything we do is okay since the earth will subduct our heap of shit in a hundred million years is really sad. It's not about the earth it's about people.
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Agreed. It's missing the point.

Most people mean "Save ourselves" when they say "Save the Earth."
 
M

muntersaur

Member
East Lake said:
I've hated this quote since I first heard it years ago. He even mentions Radon gas as something people are paranoid about, which is only behind smoking as a cause for lung cancer. People sit in their homes, ingest an odorless radioactive gas and then fucking die because nobody knew or bothered to test their basement. The notion that everything we do is okay since the earth will subduct our heap of shit in a hundred million years is really sad. It's not about the earth it's about people.
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That was the exact point he made: "the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!"
 
T

TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
Weird that they mentioned the fungi could consume plastic in an oxygen free environment. It's almost as if they plan to jettison the plastic and fungi into space. You know that fungi will come back earth for vengeance.
 
E

East Lake

Member
muntersaur said:
That was the exact point he made: "the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!"
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If you want to understand my view here go to the part where he talks about self-importance. He even mentions about the arrogance of interfering in nature in the beginning. To go back to what I previously said he sweeps aside legitimate concerns about things like Radon (kills thousands a year) and plastic waste, but we're paranoid about these issues? That to me is self-importance. If he knew a lung cancer victim from Radon his arrogant bs would flip so quick that this bit would have never been made. The whole thing is built on sweeping aside any environmentalist notion because on a planetary scale we don't amount to shit. Any kind of responsibility or long-term cares are gone. It's the ignore my health because I'm going to die anyway attitude.

I know he's a comic and the bit doesn't necessarily define him but I'd be stunned if he didn't have that attitude buried in him somewhere, and even if he did that's fine. But now that idea is out there and people will latch onto that and carry it to their graves.
 
S

squidyj

Member
davepoobond said:
well i would be hesitant to use this except in very enclosed places.

this fungi would have a very... bad effect on most things if it was out of hand.
Click to expand...

Eh, we wouldn't have to use the fungi directly on the plastic. Manufacture that enzyme and we're good to go.
 
B

Bentles

Member
So what we'd chuck some fungi on our plastic, maybe in a contained, oxygen-free environment or maybe not, and then it'd break it down and in turn die (or we could mush it all up) and be used that to fertilize other plants? Is that the idea? Sounds like an ideal solution if this'll work like I think it will.
 
B

BeEatNU

WORLDSTAAAAAAR
Bentles said:
So what we'd chuck some fungi on our plastic, maybe in a contained, oxygen-free environment or maybe not, and then it'd break it down and in turn die (or we could mush it all up) and be used that to fertilize other plants? Is that the idea? Sounds like an ideal solution if this'll work like I think it will.
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I'm all with it. make it happen.
I would say still recycle like we do but at the facility they handle the process.

nice avatar btw
 
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