I wonder if they could be used for cleaning up chemical spills and perhaps toxins found in landfill sites.
His team, which was mostly made up of undergraduate students, took Acinetobacter strains that had been recovered from clean rooms, and reared them on vanishingly low levels of nutrients. Under these extremely restrictive diets, the bacteria could grow on ethanol as their main fuel. They burned it for energy, and they used its carbon to make their own DNA, proteins, and other essential molecules.
The team found hints that Acinetobacter might also be able to grow on isopropyl alcohol, the main chemical used to wipe clean-room surfaces, and Kleenol 30, the detergent used to scrub the rooms’ floors. Even if they can’t use these substances as energy sources, they can certainly break them down. They can even withstand treatment with hydrogen peroxide, the chemical used in bleaches, detergents, and disinfectants.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/bacteria-can-eat-the-cleaning-products-nasa-uses-to-sterilize-its-spaceships/562016/
The problem is restricting the microorganisms to the spill or landfill.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people will get real angry if they escape and start devouring whiskey and beer or something like that
Winchell Chung We already have critters that devour whiskey & beer which is how we get malt vinegar. For most organic molecules bigger than methane there's a bacteria or fungi that can crack it for energy.
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