I make a popular science video and all the emperors learn from it!

[Science Popularization Short Video Collection Series 19. ]

[Eleven, Short Video: Plastic-Eating Bacteria, Problems Humans Cannot Solve, Nature Always Has a Solution! ]

[Wow, I really can't believe that nature has learned how to eat the plastic we produce. ]

[This is a discovery that can change the fate of mankind! ]

[Because scientists have discovered a kind of bacteria that has undergone a genetic mutation in just 50 years. ]

[They changed from eating keratin to eating polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is plastic bottles. ]

[In short, this kind of bacteria is decomposing plastic like decomposing food! ]

[Problems that humans cannot solve, nature always has a solution. ]

[Currently, this research has made a breakthrough. It is expected that it will soon move from the laboratory to industrial production and large-scale treatment of plastic waste. ]

[Now some curious students will ask, what kind of bacteria has such a good appetite? Can you eat plastic that looks like it has no nutrition? 】

[...]

"I don't understand, but it seems amazing."

"What kind of bacteria solved the problem that no one can handle! Is this bacteria really that amazing?"

"It seems that plastic is not a good thing, and it has caused such a headache for future generations."

"......"

The ancients were confused, but based on the content of the video, they thought the discovery was great.

[This has to go back to 2016. 】

[Scientists from a recycling company in Kyoto, Japan, discovered a mysterious sludge near a plastic recycling site. 】

[It looks like it is devouring the piles of plastic bottles. 】

[After careful study, it was found that there is a kind of bacterial microorganism in this mysterious sludge. 】

[It seems to have adapted to the environment full of plastic, and by decomposing the plastic, it uses the carbon in it to provide energy for itself. 】

【Neon scientists immediately realized that this was an important discovery. 】

【The bacteria was named Osaka Sakai bacteria. 】

【PET, a plastic, is regarded as the pinnacle of human ingenuity. Its emergence made the popularity of various sodas possible. 】

【Because it is light, transparent, strong, and carbon dioxide cannot penetrate. 】

【Because PET has become a good substitute for glass. 】

【In 2016, 480 billion plastic bottles were produced worldwide! 】

【Only 7% of them were recycled to continue to hold water, and half were reused to produce secondary products, such as clothes or carpet fibers. 】

【The rest eventually ended up in landfills or the ocean. 】

【These plastic bottles can float in the wild ocean for 450 years! 】

【And what's even more terrifying is that plastic will never disappear. 】

【Alas, it will only decomposeIt gets smaller and smaller, becomes microplastics, and eventually enters the human body through the food chain. 】

【It is no exaggeration to say that plastic pollution is a life-or-death challenge facing mankind in the future! 】

【...】

They understand the harm of plastics.

They also take this great discovery seriously.

“It can float on the sea for 450 years! It won’t disappear, which is too scary.”

“The key is that it will eventually enter the human body and stay in the human body. It is no exaggeration to say that this thing is simply a poison!”

“Well, if you find this good thing, take it out immediately to purify the ocean.”

“......”

【Therefore, the scientists were very excited and carefully examined the newly discovered bacteria. 】

【When they carefully observed it under a microscope, they found that this bacterium can produce a specific enzyme. 】

【This enzyme can break down PET into two components, dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol. 】

【Both of these things are made from petroleum. 】

【Among them, ethylene glycol can be used as antifreeze for cars, while dimethyl terephthalate has no use and is a waste. 】

【After being combined by humans, the two become very strong polymer chains. 】

【But the problem is that it is not degradable! 】

【The crucial point is that the researchers identified the genes responsible for the enzymes in this bacteria and then replicated these enzymes in large quantities in the laboratory. 】

【Although it decomposes PET 100 times faster than natural degradation, it still cannot keep up with the speed of human production! 】

【So the researchers hope to improve (abcf) and strengthen this enzyme in the laboratory to make it a super enzyme. 】

【So the competition for genetically modified enzymes is about to begin. 】

【Currently, this research is being carried out in many laboratories around the world. 】

【In 2019, the University of Portsmouth in the United States established the Enzyme Innovation Center. John McGeehan, a structural biologist there, submitted a research report in 2020, showing us the charm of biological evolution. 】

【Nature has evolved cutin over millions of years. 】

【This is a natural polyester that usually forms a protective layer on plants to block pathogens. 】

【But some bacteria have evolved cutinase, which can break down cutin into smaller molecules, thereby destroying plants. 】

【Through gene comparison, science has discovered that PETase contains roughly the same amino acid blocks as cutinase, which means that the enzyme that breaks down plastic was produced through gene mutation in the past 50 years! 】 (To read the violent novel, go to Feilu Novel Network!)

【Through a lot of genetic manipulation and a lot of experiments in the laboratory. 】

【The Portsmouth research team has successfully produced a turbocharged version of PETase, which digests much faster than the naturally occurring PETase. 】

【But now there is still oneThe problem is that decomposing PET can release a lot of ethylene glycol. 】

[Ethylene glycol has good production value, no problem. 】

[But decomposition produces terephthalate, which we just said is completely useless and will still pollute the environment! 】

[So the experiment has to continue. 】

[In 2022, there was finally a breakthrough. 】

[The Portsmouth team isolated another enzyme TPA oxygenase, TPATO, from a large amount of crystals. 】

[TPATO can convert terephthalate molecules into something else, DCD. 】

[After a bunch of very complex chemical reactions, a naturally occurring acid is finally formed, which is the main component of antioxidants in green tea. 】

[This means that we can now produce sustainable chemicals and materials from plastics. 】

[Thereby solving the problem of plastic recycling and upgrading. 】

[Although there is still a long way to go from the laboratory to industrialization, at least we now see hope, and turning waste into treasure is no longer an empty talk. 】

[Finally, the same sentence, the problems that humans cannot solve still rely on nature. 】

[...]

Hot comments from netizens:

——"It further proves that humans can perish, but the earth will not."

——Reply: "In simple terms, even if all creatures become extinct, the earth is still the earth. It can still rebuild the ecological environment tens of millions of years later, and it can still turn around no matter who is missing."

——"When this kind of bacteria spreads, wire insulation will become a problem again."[]

——"Cold knowledge: After the first tree appeared, there was a period of 40 million years when no bacteria knew how to decompose wood. Plastic has only appeared for two hundred years."

——"Nature has been busy for a long time and found that it is the easiest to solve the problem of humans."

Qin Dynasty.

Ying Zheng was full of emotion.

"It's too hurtful to be missing anyone in this world."

He originally thought that he was chosen by God and was a unique existence.

Now he realized that it was not the case.

Even if all human beings disappeared, the so-called God would not care, let alone him alone. .