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As any reptile owner will tell you, wax worms will eat through plastic containers so you should store them in glass. It's common knowledge. It is however amazi
by Raphmedia 10y ago
As any reptile owner will tell you, wax worms will eat through plastic containers so you should store them in glass. It's common knowledge.
It is however amazing that nobody (me included) never thought that this could be a solution to our plastic issues. "It's common knowledge, why waste time thinking about it?"
- mhb 10y agoAlso, the really clever part was suspecting and then testing that the plastic isn't just mechanically broken down.
- developerdanny 10y agoBy squishing loads of bugs on some plastic. Reminds me of the playground!
- aaron_m04 10y agoThey probably assumed scientists already knew about it but didn't think it was a bid deal.
- Raphmedia 10y agoI wonder how many things are hidden that way.
- burntwater 10y agoIt's (apparently) common knowledge among reptile owners. That doesn't mean it's common knowledge among the particular scientists studying how to decompose plastics. Siloed knowledge will always be a problem (at least among humans. With omnipresent AI, that could change...).
- wyldfire 10y agoA day in the life of the omnipresent AI's keeper involves a lot of "Oh, no, sorry, CleverBot2000, we can't solve that global problem that way. This domain's model is incomplete, I guess."
- RugnirViking 10y ago'but keeper, if walmart take the price of your meal off your order and you can refund no questions asked, can't we solve world hunger and the economy by taking and refunding free meals infinitely?'
- Florin_Andrei 10y agoI'm guessing everyone assumed that was a purely mechanical process - i.e. they just make holes. Lots of critters make holes in lots of things. Digesting the polymer OTOH - that's a bit of a paradigm shift. EDIT: It just occurred to me that both wax and plastic bag polymers are large chains of carbon with some hydrogen hanging off the edges. Perhaps it should not be so surprising that wax worms can digest that polymer. EDIT2: Nevermind, that was in the article, I didn't read the whole thing.