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Posted on 12/20/2019 8:29:10 AM PST by nwrep
As she prepared to fly back to Portland in January 2017, Morgan Vague stood nervously in the security line at Houston Airport, hoping the TSA agents wouldn't notice the contraband stored in her carry-on bag—nearly a dozen Ziploc bags full of dirt. The Reed College senior had flown to Texas to collect samples for her biology thesis project. Her theory was that, in areas with high rates of pollution, microbes would have evolved to eat certain types of plastic. Oregon's soil is too clean to accurately sample from, and many of the state's landfills and refineries are closed off. But that wouldn't be an issue in Houston, where she grew up—there are seven Superfund sites in her home county alone.
If she could isolate plastic-devouring bacteria in a lab, it could one day be put to use breaking down such environmental nuisances as the Pacific Ocean "garbage patch." Her fear, however, was that it would get flagged as a biohazard before she ever got the chance.
That's good news for Vague—and the planet. From one of the samples, collected at the beach in Galveston Bay, where she says hundreds of gallons of oil leak into the ocean daily, Vague was able to successfully isolate three strains of bacteria that break down and consume polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a ubiquitous plastic—one of which, Pseudomonas morganensis, has never before been discovered. Her research professor, Jay Mellies, has called it a "watershed" discovery.
"What we're focusing now on," Vague says, "is getting a more appreciable degradation of plastic faster. And once we get that, maybe scaling that up to some sort of industrial size that can really help us tackle this [pollution] problem."
Hopefully she patented the bacteria
She found it inside a refrigerator over at Delta House.
George Carlin was right. The earth puts up with humans because it wanted plastic for itself.
Will it be Breadfruit for the homeless and indigent?
Oh god. LOL. In pure clean Oregon it wouldn’t work, so she flies to Texas to find pollution. Will the propaganda never stop?
Real science by someone who will be a good scientist.
Of course the Gorebull warming thugs will hate her for having a simple solution to solve a world wide problem.
Vague was able to successfully isolate three strains of bacteria that break down and consume polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a ubiquitous plastic
Thereby demonstrating the earth’s natural ability to heal itself in a remarkable act of resilience to man Kind.
Dean Wormer:
Greg, what is the worst fraternity on this campus?
Greg:
Well that would be hard to say, sir. They’re each outstanding in their own way.
Dean Wormer:
Cut the horseshit, son. I’ve got their disciplinary files right here. Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode.
Greg:
You’re talking about Delta, sir.
Dean Wormer:
Of course I’m talking about Delta, you TWERP!!! This year is going to be different. This year we are going to grab the bull by the balls and kick those punks off campus.
Greg:
What do you intend to do sir? Delta’s already on probation.
Dean Wormer:
They are?
Greg:
Yes, sir.
Dean Wormer:
Oh. Then as of this moment, they’re on double secret probation!
Greg:
Double secret probation, sir?
Dean Wormer:
There is a little-known codicil in the Faber College constitution which gives the dean unlimited power to preserve order in time of campus emergency. Find me a way to revoke Delta’s charter. You live next door. Put Neidermeyer on it. He’s a sneaky little shit, just like you, right? [Greg nods] The time has come for someone to put their foot down. And that foot is me.
Drug mules?
The planet is a living system and ever evolving.. everything on it has been here since it formed.. we humans have managed to combine those things in way nature never had before, but eventually nature will “figure out” how to break them down...
Hell, it figured our how to turn the poison of Oxygen into the greatest tool for advanced life itself
“...contraband stored in her carry-on bag—nearly a dozen Ziploc bags full of dirt.”
How is this contraband?
I don’t think it is an exaggeration.
one of which, Pseudomonas morganensis, has never before been discovered.
Well, she did name it after herself, so that's a start.
What’s left over after the bacteria eat the PET?
I believe stainless steel was happened on by accident by a scientist trying to make a better gun barrel.
Yeah, noticed that slam against TX. Hope TSA puts her on the no fly list for bragging about sneaking baggies.
The bigger question is how fast she’ll kill off all the fish.
As long as the PET eating bugs can recognize “waste” as opposed to “useful products” we will be safe. But if it starts eating PET wherever PET is used, there may be a problem.
Having said that, good for her! She did some good research. There were some threads yesterday about women and STEM that said that there was no reason women cannot excel in science fields, and here is an example.
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