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 pseudotsuga
brother
Registered: 06/29/11
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 Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic 1
#15739238 - 01/30/12 04:33 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679201/fungi-discovered-in-the-amazon-will-eat-your-plastic
The Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on earth. One of them, carried home recently by a group from Yale University, appears to be quite happy eating plastic in airless landfills.
The group of students, part of Yale’s annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory with molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel, ventured to the jungles of Ecuador. The mission was to allow "students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way." The group searched for plants, and then cultured the microorganisms within the plant tissue. As it turns out, they brought back a fungus new to science with a voracious appetite for a global waste problem: polyurethane.
The common plastic is used for everything from garden hoses to shoes and truck seats. Once it gets into the trash stream, it persists for generations. Anyone alive today is assured that their old garden hoses and other polyurethane trash will still be here to greet his or her great, great grandchildren. Unless something eats it.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and--even more surprising--do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
Student Pria Anand recorded the microbe’s remarkable behavior and Jonathan Russell isolated the enzymes that allow the organism to degrade plastic as its food source. The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
Who knows what the students in the rainforest will turn up next?
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Led Zeppelin
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: pseudotsuga]
#15739304 - 01/30/12 04:45 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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just more evidence that mushrooms are the answer to the worlds problems 
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If acid puts you in the drivers seat, and mushrooms put you in the passenger seat...then DXM puts you in the trunk
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tito123
Registered: 01/23/10
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Led Zeppelin] 1
#15739318 - 01/30/12 04:47 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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It would be fun to have a culture of this
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Gnome_Zen
YoungMind
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: tito123]
#15739356 - 01/30/12 04:53 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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We should spread these spores all over america. Then call us the united states of amerispores. haha
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Find your enlightenment. Mine is Psychedelics.
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NWlight
Just look
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: tito123]
#15739364 - 01/30/12 04:54 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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wow this is awesome news!!
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Hilarious and inconsequential, the lot of it. Enjoy the ride.
Music is medicine.
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Ouija
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Led Zeppelin]
#15739367 - 01/30/12 04:55 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Quote:
Led Zeppelin said:
just more evidence that mushrooms are the answer to the worlds problems
This is awesome news, I hope to see this being utilized.
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DebuteMachine
Psychonaut
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Ouija]
#15739392 - 01/30/12 05:00 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Immediate integration into the system. The planet demands it.
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guest1
Mycena
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: DebuteMachine]
#15739436 - 01/30/12 05:10 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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As long as it can not grow in an oxygen environment, you wouldn't want everything to start breaking down that you buy.
If its only anti-air, then yes, we need to get a culture and share it.
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 StevenMichael
Aaron Brrr
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: pseudotsuga]
#15739483 - 01/30/12 05:21 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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I like how they keep re-"discovering" plastic eating fungi from various parts of the world like it's a revolution. A canadian high school student found a strain of plastic-eating fungi from his SCIENCE FAIR experiment where he just put DIRT FROM LANDFILLS IN BOTTLES WITH SHREDDED PLASTIC BAGS and recorded which one had consumed more plastic over a few months.
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Leon Ferrum
environmentalist know-it-all
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: StevenMichael]
#15739872 - 01/30/12 06:38 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Quote:
StevenMichael said:
I like how they keep re-"discovering" plastic eating fungi from various parts of the world like it's a revolution. A canadian high school student found a strain of plastic-eating fungi from his SCIENCE FAIR experiment where he just put DIRT FROM LANDFILLS IN BOTTLES WITH SHREDDED PLASTIC BAGS and recorded which one had consumed more plastic over a few months.
Yeah I was about to say the same thing. Are these stories bullshit, or is there something preventing these from being used?
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CounterCulturest
-Positive Mental Attitude-
Registered: 01/18/10
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Leon Ferrum]
#15739877 - 01/30/12 06:39 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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This is the best news I have EVER heard. Period.
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Led Zeppelin
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Leon Ferrum]
#15740164 - 01/30/12 07:29 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Quote:
Leon Ferrum said:
Quote:
StevenMichael said:
I like how they keep re-"discovering" plastic eating fungi from various parts of the world like it's a revolution. A canadian high school student found a strain of plastic-eating fungi from his SCIENCE FAIR experiment where he just put DIRT FROM LANDFILLS IN BOTTLES WITH SHREDDED PLASTIC BAGS and recorded which one had consumed more plastic over a few months.
Yeah I was about to say the same thing. Are these stories bullshit, or is there something preventing these from being used?
idk why anyone would not want to use these fungi. even the plastic companies would still make their money because they still make their products I dont see who would be against it.
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If acid puts you in the drivers seat, and mushrooms put you in the passenger seat...then DXM puts you in the trunk
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mirage
Registered: 09/25/09
Posts: 1,208
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Led Zeppelin]
#15740264 - 01/30/12 07:58 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Gee, there is a mushroom for everything!
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something 
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demius
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Leon Ferrum]
#15740419 - 01/30/12 08:33 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Quote:
Leon Ferrum said:
Quote:
StevenMichael said:
I like how they keep re-"discovering" plastic eating fungi from various parts of the world like it's a revolution. A canadian high school student found a strain of plastic-eating fungi from his SCIENCE FAIR experiment where he just put DIRT FROM LANDFILLS IN BOTTLES WITH SHREDDED PLASTIC BAGS and recorded which one had consumed more plastic over a few months.
Yeah I was about to say the same thing. Are these stories bullshit, or is there something preventing these from being used?
there are things preventing them from being implemented. this bio-"technology" has been around for at least a few years, if not longer, just from different sources
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downlowfunk
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: demius]
#15741591 - 01/31/12 04:50 AM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Awesome!
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dwpineal
Psychedelic Artist
Registered: 07/20/06
Posts: 3,703
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: downlowfunk]
#15741797 - 01/31/12 07:12 AM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
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Awesome, so I wonder if the Canadian kid just found plastic-eating fungi in his own soil - how common is this, and are fungi already eating our landfills? Seems like we should be mass inoculating land fills with this and other fungi - seems like a lot more environmentally friendly than just throwing it in a hole in the ground...
Also can someone link me to the kid's science project? Would be cool to do one like that with my kid...
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SporeFarmer
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: dwpineal]
#15744181 - 01/31/12 06:05 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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truly amazing..
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bigmike7104
Stranger
Registered: 07/12/10
Posts: 1,312
Loc: USA
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Led Zeppelin]
#15746594 - 02/01/12 08:56 AM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
Led Zeppelin said:
just more evidence that mushrooms are the answer to the worlds problems
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html
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Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind
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Viruk
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: bigmike7104]
#15750367 - 02/02/12 02:05 AM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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A friend and I were discussing this the other day. It's actually reminiscent of the time we were like "I wonder what will happen when Kim Jong-il dies" and he was actually dead, and they hadn't announced it.
But back to topic. You'll see the occasional predictions around of how long plastics will "last" a lot are based on theoretical predictions of when bacteria will eventually go "holy fuck look at all this free energy all around us!" and start eating it as a food source.
In the popsci article they already state they have isolated the enzyme that does this, which means they'll want to start splicing the genetics into other things soon, if possible.
While innoculating landfills with this type of fungus would be the smart thing to do, it's not good politically or economically. Sure the plastics company makes money, but what about the recycling people? They are currently paid hundreds of millions in government subsidies to make bad door mats, and horrible park sand replacement rubber floor garbage, the rest they just dump in landfills anyway.
So people like that will be against it. The next thing is, what happens when you have like 1 million rotting carcasses lying around everywhere? You get a plague. Likewise, if we cultivate a hardy strain of bacteria or fungi that can take on winter, and eat all plastics, it may just take off everywhere.
Then what does the damn thing excrete? It doesn't turn plastic into sunshine does it? Or love? The point is a whole bunch of plastic is going to get converted into something else, will this solve our problems, or set off a new one? You could even say this question doesn't really matter and we fly by the seat of our pants anyway, which is true! But I think science will change this soon enough.
And the dominating all encompassing force that is US politics.
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Mycophyte
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Viruk]
#15751191 - 02/02/12 09:28 AM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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Viruk has some excellent points. I wonder from a personal perspective if it could be cultured at home the way some do with other species of fungi. I can't seem to find much about what byproducts the fungus breaks the plastic down into. Would it be toxic, or useful for some other purpose?
Some people have composters to recycle their trash into compost for their gardens/worm food. Others even recycle their own waste. Could it be possible for individuals to recycle their own plastic garbage into something productive? Or would it usher in the END TIMES? 
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newyorkcheesecake
Stranger
Registered: 01/29/12
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Re: Fungi Discovered in the Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic [Re: Mycophyte]
#15755908 - 02/03/12 11:56 AM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Does anyone have any photos of Pestalotiopsis microspora? I'd love to see what this miracle fungus looks like.
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“The fact that we lack the language skills to communicate with nature does not impune the concept that nature is intelligent. It speaks to our inadequacy of our skill set for communication.” - Paul Stamets
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