4 ms·
I think a more charitable interpretation of the parent comment was that of a doomsday thought experiment/rhetorical question: What would happen if these bacteri
by sarabande 9y ago
I think a more charitable interpretation of the parent comment was that of a doomsday thought experiment/rhetorical question: What would happen if these bacteria evolved to really be able to cause damage one day? The article only briefly remarks:
> If these hurdles can be surmounted, though, PETase might make a dent in the scourge of plastic waste.
- goodmachine 9y agoFWIW, this 'doomsday scenario' is roughly the plot of a 1979 Judge Dredd episode (which I remember fondly) - featuring a world in which support bridges were made of 'plasteen' under attack from a novel bacterium: SOMETHING'S EATING IT AWAY The Great Plasteen Disaster https://dreddalert.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/judge-dredd-great-plasteen-disaster.html https://dreddalert.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/judge-dredd-great-...
- JohnL4 9y agoAlso, a book published in 1972, _Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters_. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2368220.Mutant_59 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2368220.Mutant_59
- cavanasm 9y agoAlso (sort of) the crux of one of my favorite horror manga, Biomeat: Nectar, which is about a genetically engineered animal that eats "garbage" (basically anything but metal, glass, and stone IIRC) and can be harvested for food, but escapes from the garbage plants and starts going after people. They're not microbes though, but more like nightmare fuel looking bugs about the size of a face, with the mouth on the bottom, and they reproduce via budding (like a hydra).