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Mealworms can eat and biodegrade styrofoam
- smaili 11y agoExcuse the ignorance, but could this have any effect at all on genetics or mutation?
- nolok 11y agoPretty much every thing and anything had an effect on that.
- jobu 11y agoThis is the key part: Microorganisms in the worms' guts biodegrade the plastic in the process The question is whether we can harness these bacteria to break down plastics in landfills.
- ohitsdom 11y agoAgreed, cut out the middleman.
- oskenso 11y agoDon't we need them though? The host protects and helps transport the bacteria
- Zikes 11y agoThe bacteria may need a diet other than pure plastic as well, which the mealworm provides.
- bewaretheirs 11y agoI'd imagine that the mealworm's mouth parts play a role in chopping up the styrofoam into digestible pieces.
- scott_karana 11y agoWe could always run the styrofoam through an industrial chipper at the landfill, couldn't we?
- prolepunk 11y agoActually having a middleman is kind of awesome, as you don't want your plastics to degrade in the environment while you're still using them.
- onion2k 11y agoIf that were possible then you'd expect to see landfills teaming with beetles already. As that isn't mentioned, perhaps something else in the landfill stops them?
- djent 11y agoBirds, snakes, frogs, toads, any natural predator really.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- cmyr 11y agothat they're anaerobic and generally toxic?
- foofoo55 11y agoAnaerobic bacteria thrive inside landfills and compost [1], just not so much at the surface. The awful stink (and methane) from dug up trash or wet compost is from anaerobic bacteria. [1] http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/biology_anaerobic.htm http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/biology_anaer...
- jkyle 11y agoI don't know if they're not teaming with beetles....anytime I've had the misfortune of being rather close to a landfill they seemed teaming with all manner of insects.
- notduncansmith 11y agoI believe "teeming" may be the spelling you want[1]. [1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teeming http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teeming
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- theophrastus 11y agoThere is some really amazing biochemistry going on here. The essential enzymes involved (and understanding their exact mechanism) would be of inestimable value for several reasons; a very large one you (jobu) suggest right here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene#Biodegradation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene#Biodegradation "... rates of styrene degradation ranged from 0.14 to 0.4 a−1. This is an order of magnitude faster than the most rapid rate of polystyrene degradation identified... Pseudomonas putida is capable of converting styrene oil into the biodegradable plastic PHA. This may be of use in the effective recycling of Polystyrene foam, otherwise thought to be non-biodegradable."
- bduerst 11y agoIf they're in the gut, odds are they're anaerobic and don't live long if exposed to the atmosphere. Could work for incubation vats or maybe buried landfills.
- louithethrid 11y agoIm sure they will keep to the landfills, cause eating house insulation or the furniture is considered bad taste.
- frevd 11y agoInstead of putting them into nature we should put them into our food, to digest all that plastic that will be in our food chain soon.
- munificent 11y agoI think the real scary question is what happens if we do. One of the main reasons we use plastics is because they are great barriers against bacteria and other grossness. We wrap food in plastic, put dirty diapers and dog poop in plastic, put garbage in plastic, wrap raw meat in plastic, use plastic for medical equipment. All because it reliably keeps out (or in) the bad stuff. What happens if there are plastic-eating bacteria all over the world? Imagine what it would feel like if everywhere we currently used plastic we were using uncoated paper instead? What kind of sanitization problems would we be experiencing?
- smt88 11y agoAssuming they're not airborne and can't live long away from specific environment(s), this wouldn't be a problem. Also, there are plenty of other things to hold food that can be used instead of plastic. I doubt sanitation would be the main problem.
- novaleaf 11y ago"Nature finds a way"
- pyrocat 11y ago"Life ᵘʰ finds a way"
- novaleaf 11y agoAhh, my movie quote mastery skills pale compared to you. (also HN markup skills it seems)
- wyldfire 11y agoIt's funny you should bring that line up -- "The Andromeda Strain" (also by Crichton) features a microbe that's able to decompose plastics and rubbers.
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- moheeb 11y agoThe question is whether we can... inject the bacteria into the guts of poor and hungry people and feed them our plastic.
- blisterpeanuts 11y agoMoving forward, can't we tax or ban styrofoam food containers, to encourage vendors to switch to paper and cardboard? Less nasty crap in our landfills, and less plastics in our food and hot drinks, too.
- timdiggerm 11y agoNYC considered it http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/09/new-york-judge-overturns-polystyrene-foam-ban.html http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/09/new-york-judge-overturns-p...
- duggieawesome 11y agoAnd the town of Brookline, MA has banned Styrofoam. http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/19/dunkin-donuts-introduces-paper-coffee-cups-brookline/yYwPbxr5DOFy0eifBZj7aM/story.html http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/19/dunkin-donuts...
- ohitsdom 11y agoWhy do companies choose styrofoam anyway? Is it cheapest? Should be illegal based solely on the sound it makes when it rubs together.
- ssmoot 11y agoYour car probably has it (behind the bumper cover). Helmets have it. Your home may have it. It's light, it insulates, it absorbs the energy of impact (once at least). I don't know if there are effective, inexpensive substitutes for those uses.
- freshyill 11y agoFor some things, it's the best material. I don't think most reasonable people would say we should ban styrofoam when it's the best material in a safety application. For others, like food containers, it's almost purely for cost reasons when other solutions exist.
- wfunction 11y agoIs it really a good idea to convert plastic to CO2?
- hippich 11y ago"The worms converted about half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide, as they would with any food source."
- codecamper 11y agoyes. there may seem to be a lot of plastic in the world, but the volume of co2 produced each day dwarfs the total accumulated plastic.
- wfunction 11y agoDid you do the numbers? Would be nice if you could share them.
- brc 11y agoYes, c02 is the basic building block of life, able to be converted into all manner of living things. Much better to turn old plastics back back into c02 as a raw life material than to leave it trapped in the ground.
- jkyle 11y agoThey're also a tasty, environmentally friendly source of protein. [1] 1. http://news.discovery.com/earth/mealworms-beat-beef-as-sustainable-protein-20121220.htm http://news.discovery.com/earth/mealworms-beat-beef-as-susta...
- eveningcoffee 11y agoCan they also eat isolation commonly used for housing isolation? Or is it treated against possible pest attack?
- cwkoss 11y agoinsulation. Some housing insulation is also polystyrene, so probably.
- eveningcoffee 11y agoOuch, I actually knew this. Thanks for the correction.
- eveningcoffee 11y agoI know that a fungus that was able to process polystyrene was found from Amazon rain forest. I do not think that we should regard any of this as good news.
- devy 11y agoThis was barely a new discovery at all. A Taiwanese high school sophomore discovered it in 2009. [1] Use Google Translate if you don't read traditional Chinese. [2] [1]: http://archive.is/27Jb http://archive.is/27Jb [2]: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.is%2F27Jb&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&p...
- Cyph0n 11y agoSo what happened here? Did the Stanford team not notice, or just ignored the student's earlier discovery?
- 1ris 11y agoIt was proably not published in a "propper" way, so it's ok. There are bizare idears who is the first to publish something, for example that pre-print don't count, because ... well I don't know.
- devy 11y agoThis was not some amateur discovery. This was 2009 Intel International Engineering Science Fair's top prize for Microbiology category. I would be surprised if those award winning high schoolers had no assistance from professors to teach them how to do research and write papers.
- ThatGeoGuy 11y agoAnd here the Stanford paper performed a long term study on mealworms and a styrofoam diet as opposed to a control. As for why they didn't reference the previous discovery, it could be for a couple of reasons: 1. The primary author(s) were not distinctly aware of the discovery. 2. If nothing was published in the 2009 Intel International Engineering Science Fair, then there is little to reference. Referencing a news article in a journal is not often considered good practice, and in many cases can be considered unacceptable. This is a case where I would say "do not attribute to malice...", as I don't see any direct benefit to the researchers for excluding this reference in their paper. Their study focuses on long-term results, not merely "mealworms can eat styrofoam, news at eleven." EDIT: Formatting
- Tharkun 11y agoHow is this any better than burning + energy recuperation?
- gregschlom 11y ago> The worms converted about half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide, as they would with any food source. I'm certainly not a chemist, but given that polystyrene is equal parts carbon and hydrogen (C8H8) and that carbon is roughly 12 times heavier than hydrogen I'd say that if the worms managed to convert only half of the polystyrene (by weight) into CO2 that looks much better than burning it, which -if done properly- would have converted all of the carbon into CO2. However, I don't know how much energy can be harvested from burning it, and how to take that into account in order to decide whether it's better to burn it or to degrade it with the worms.
- hobbes78 11y agoPlastic is inert in a landfill, but occupies a lot of space. If it's burned, CO2 is released into the atmosphere and toxic ashes are left behind, although way less space is occupied. If all plastic is degraded by these bacteria, apparently no disadvantages seem to be present.
- PixelB 11y agoWell, not quite. "The worms converted about half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide, as they would with any food source." So they produce CO2 as well as a byproduct.
- kijin 11y agoThe byproduct is called poop, and the article says it can be used as fertilizer.
- azinman2 11y agoNot quite inert -- it slowly degrades to micro particles that will be difficult to keep in place, and birds will eat the bits along the way.
- Ensorceled 11y agoI can just imagine history classes in 2115, "... then they took those valuable hydrocarbons and turned them into one use disposable cups. Then they fed the cups to mealworms removing them forever from productive use as either fuel or plastic. This insanity was common practice until the planet ran out of accessible oil reserves in 2075."
- marknutter 11y ago"which, as we all know, is a moot point since we discovered <futuristic super material> in 2043."
- skatenerd 11y agoIf you have trypophobia, consider not clicking the link.
- TomSawyer 11y agoIt's no worse than the picture that comes up if you look up trypophobia.
- bdamm 11y agoI wish I hadn't googled that. It may be time to license photoshop on a certain kind of ethical requirement to not create certain images. Those images are so disgusting, my teeth hurt.
- skatenerd 11y agoSorry I put you through that.
- croddin 11y agoIf you have trypophobia, consider not googling trypophobia.
- 36erhefg 11y agoI think there should be a word for not having this fear, since I think most of us shudder at the sight of those images.
- scmoore 11y agoOf course I had to google it, and I seem to have missed whatever's so disgusting about it (guessing an insect-infested wound or something based on reactions here). "Trypophobia is a claimed pathological fear of holes, particularly irregular patterns of holes. ... Shapes that elicit a reaction were said to include clustered holes in innocuous contexts such as fruit and bubbles, and in contexts associated with danger, such as holes made by insects and holes in wounds and diseased tissue." From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia, which contains a picture of a lotus seed head.
- orf 11y agoWe could try recycling? Dig up dead organisms, turn them into brightly coloured cups, use them once and throw them away to be turned into worm food. What an odd system.
- ilitirit 11y agoImagine living in a world where one day you wake up to find half your car eaten by pests...
- rw2 11y agoThis could be a great compost experiment.
- vecter 11y agoGiven that polystyrene is C8H8 [0], how can mealworms live without a source of nitrogen? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene
- ac29 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation#Biological_nitrogen_fixation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation#Biological_n...
- nikolaj 11y agoI can't help but think of a Simpsons episode. ... but who will eat all the Darkling Beetles? Oh, no problem for that we brought in Malaysian bats. But what about all the bats? Oh we have a plan: we have Indonesian tree boas that love to eat Malaysian bats. And the boas? That is the best part, come winter, they are not used to the cold and will all die off...
- Houshalter 11y agoWouldn't it be more efficient to burn it? It's going to convert to carbon dioxide anyway.
- kijin 11y agoBurning produces CO2 and toxic fumes. Worms produce CO2 and fertilizer.