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[Slavik81]

Are oil eating bacteria real and if so, why weren't they used for the gulf of Mexico oil spill?

This is just speculation on my part, but that stuff is pretty new, and I'm not sure anyone really knows what the consequences would be of a large-scale deployment. A bacterial bloom of any sort could have serious consequences itself, and things are especially dangerous and unpredictable if it's an introduced species.

And that's assuming that the bacteria can even do its job on the scale required, under the conditions required.

 

[Router]

I can see the future headlines now "new plastic discovered, could solve world fungus problem"

 

[zoukka]

Only a matter of time now when nature finds a way to dispose the cause of all this...

 

[industrian]

Joe Rogan was talking about this shit weeks ago.

The Amazon is a crazy place.

 

[ReBurn]

Sure it eats plastic. Until it gets a taste of human flesh.

It won't need to eat human flesh. What will happen is science will marvel at itself for solving the waste problem and it won't realize that the fungus doesn't distinguish between waste plastic and useful plastic. So when the landfills are gone the fungus will seek out a new means of survival: our homes and buildings. In a panic, the governments of the world will commission the creation an airborne pathogen to destroy the fungus. As it is released amid the crumbling infrastructure of society, science will once again revel in its own brilliance for saving humanity from yet another plague of its own creation.

But alas, science again doesn't consider all of the variables. Not only has their solution worked, it has worked all too well. Useful fungus begins to die, destroying the processes by which humanity processes food and creates medicine. Unable to feed ourselves, humans begin to turn on one another. Neighbor eats neighbor until all that's left of humanity are a handful of government officials and scientists. Unequipped to actually do anything useful, they wrap themselves in a cocoon of their own red tape and drift off into eternity. The planet didn't kill us. We did it to ourselves.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I dont see how this could go horribly wrong!

 

[Vic]

But what are the wastes produced by this fungi?

 

[FStop7]

But what are the wastes produced by this fungi?

It digests plastic and releases waste in the form of ravenous kittens. Tens of thousands of them per pound of plastic consumed.

 

[Conciliator]

You guys are actually, not-ironically worried about a fungus eating civilization?

Anyway, seems cool to me, but you know how these things are...the labs will find some reason it doesn't work how we'd like it to.

 

[AndyMoogle]

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.

Nature has tried to kill us again and again, but we always survive. I'd say that it's more likely that we kill ourselves before anything else.

 

[JiuJitsuka]

If this fungus penetrates into health care centres, it would definitely be catastrophic.

 

[Unknown One]

Neighbor eats neighbor until all that's left of humanity are a handful of government officials and scientists.

That's eventually going to happen either way in the future anyways isn't it? With rising population and food shortages.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

Keep the Real Housewives away.

 

[AndyMoogle]

I'm surprised no one has posted the Mark Wahlberg gif yet.

 

[subversus]

this shit better stays there.

 

[FStop7]

Someone release this fungi into the LEGO thread.

 

[AColdDay]

I can see the future headlines now "new plastic discovered, could solve world fungus problem"

10/10

 

[NervousXtian]

So, what you're saying is.. we need to start dumping ALL of our waste into the Amazon.

 

[Lucky Forward]

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.

I read the book:

 

[DarthWoo]

Nature has tried to kill us again and again, but we always survive. I'd say that it's more likely that we kill ourselves before anything else.

Humanity has existed in its current anatomical form for about 200,000 years. Life has been around for around three billion years. I'd say nature will have plenty more opportunities to mop up.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Science!??

 

[maximum360]

http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/plastic-eating-fungi/





findings: http://aem.asm.org/content/77/17/6076.full

Go nature?

 

[opticalmace]

But what are the wastes produced by this fungi?

Plastic.