The plastic decomposition from the Waxworm homogenate is due mostly to the microbiome (probiotics) of the waxworm. One key player isolates is the novel bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, which produces PETase's (plastic degrading enzymes) such as ISF6_4831 protein. Plastic bioremediation is what I intend to study for a PhD so I just happen to have been following this one. Love the show!
@@0x8badf00d Honestly, we knowingly consume poison for kicks (alcohol) so I don't think that's going to stop us, ever. And if people of all different age ranges and ethnicities start dropping dead rapidly from cigarettes, smokers are mostly gonna go "that won't happen to me." They already drop dead - it's called lung cancer.
I gasped when I saw the name as well. One wonders how many other names in the Trek universes are based on real people. I have no idea. I wish the show could bring back his husband.
Really cool, considering my research project, right now, is about studying the ability for Acidithio Ferrooxidans (a bacteria) to take copper from e-waste and convert it into an ion solution. After that we precipitate the copper ions and harvest (is that the word?) what we hope to be pure copper.
I've been researching the tech for mechanical and chemical separation of waste, particularly ewaste, for quite some time now. I'd say your research is genuinely interesting, the actual sepperation of metals with minimum processing would be ideal! Awesome stuff man!
Ganara426 there's four that I see, two of which are nonsense: the waste could be cleaning the organisms (think sparkly clean organisms), the organisms could be cleaning the toxic waste (think sparkly clean toxic waste). Then there's one that makes sense but is clearly not the answer: the toxic waste could be cleaning the organisms from something (think disinfecting your countertop with toxic waste). And finally ofc you have tho obviously correct interpretation most brains will subconsciously snap to: the organisms are cleaning the toxic waste from the environment (think that entire video you just watched)
Is there a danger that any of these bioremediating organisms get eaten by another organism in the environment and the toxin enters the food chain? I'd be concerned about the effects of bioamplification of the toxins at the top of the food chain leading to adverse effects on apex organisms. Would this be more or less harmful than leaving the toxins in place?
Yup, and not just that. As with anything that concentrates stuff, the danger is there. Compare the health effect of having 1kg of Uranium dispersed throughout the Earth's soils equally versus having the same 1 kg of Uranium dissolved in the glass of water you're drinking. There's no solution without trade-offs.
Sort of, but you have to consider why these organisms accumulate toxins at all. Heavy metals in particular are worth thinking about, as they can't be broken down. One of the biggest difficulties of being a plant is preventing things eating your leaves, and filling them with toxic chemicals is one of the more effective solutions. Short answer is that they shouldn't get eaten because they are too toxic.
When the last tree has been cut down,When the last river has been poisoned,When the last animal has been killed,We will start thinking of ideas to fix our messes
Eternal Frost we are already "thinking about fixing our messes" for example Ikea is going to start using mushroom based packaging that decomposes in 2 weeks. Also a lot of people on Facebook have been sharing the idea to stop using straws at resturaunts for obvious reasons.
Nathaniel lebaron Mabey you didn't understand what I meant,We start thinking of ways to fix our messes when it gets worse The best way to stop our pollution is to prevent it entirely
Nathaniel lebaron Here's an example, Remember zika,The only reason we started to do research and find a cure is because the disease got around fast,It's the things no one thinks about that ends up being too big to handle
Oyster Mushrooms can also be used to decompose cigarette butts! I know friends who make and sell oyster mushroom containers for this specific purpose! :)
I’m a fun guy Also, solution to wax caterpillar issue: Just breed a lot, then mash them into a few tons of plastic omnom paste, then dump it on plastic.
Very interesting, and exciting possibilities, but also a few concerns: 1) most of the experiments described seem to have been very short, ie, a few hours or days; then what? Do the organisms have to be replaced frequently? What happens after a few months or years? After decades? What happens if they die in place, after accumulating, and concentrating, so much toxic material? What happens after the cleanup, when everyone has left, and some hyper-accumulators are inevitably left behind? 2) What if the microbial organisms escape and spread? What keeps them from wreaking havoc upon our plastic world? Plastic is used everywhere, from deep sea exploration to outer space, in medical equipment, garden hoses and ink pens. What would prevent a man-made catastrophe?
After plant absorbed the heavy metal elements but before they die and go rot, they can be uprooted, dried and be thrown into an industrial refining process to retrieve and refine that metal in elemental form. That will both remove hazardous material in our soil and increase the output of industrial products without extra mining.
The question is not merely whether or not these plants can help clean up our messes but what effect out messes have one them as well. And plants should be a part of our basic clean up cycle.
Geeze, this is freaking amazing. I have only read about the fungi and the moth larvae. So what happens after the plants that don’t break down toxins are done absorbing them? Don’t they eventually have to be disposed of?
it's great that we're finding ways in nature to deal with some of the crap we put out, but a huge problem with utilizing these plants and animals is that they will be helping to add these toxins into the food chain. We need to start finding ways to decrease and eventually eliminate our production of toxins, instead of dealing with the symptoms.
I have a question though, if these plants and fungi suck up the toxic waste, what happens when the plant dies? Is it released back into the soil? What would people do with these living sponges once they've done their work? Is there any way to extract these materials for future use?
Mohawk2 There is no chance that we could do enough casual damage to the planet as to make it completely lifeless. We'd have to do something of that magnitude on purpose. And, even then, we'd die off well before we finished the job.
Mohawk2 Lol. Ok, toúchè. You got one over on someone with a PhD. Good on you. Seriously. I never mind being proven incorrect. But, the insult is unnecessary and immature.
J Girl or just general genetic engineering! This is also why they're looking at a lot of plants, I think: with the understanding not every one could be used everywhere
It's so exciting to here there is something natural that will break down plastic. Hopefully they can isolate the enzyme or whatever is causing the breakdown so they can put in something that won't cause a disaster elsewhere in the ecosystem.
I must admit initially I didn’t really like Olivia as a presenter. However, after months of watching her I must say she has improved so much and she has really grown on me 😄 Good job Olivia! I look forward to your videos now!
QUESTION: What do you do with the organism once it has absorbed the pollutants? Are there measures to ensure that any introduction of a species will not lead to it becoming invasive?
This was some interesting information. The bi valves could be dangerous. They are an easy food source, so they could possibly spread the contaminants into the food chain. My daughter loves sunflowers so this will make her day when we watch it.
Christian O. Holz Maybe if they find the plastic eating gene, isolate it, and put it into a naturally occurring organism that eats things in the area. That would be spectacular.
I had wondered about farming huge numbers of the wax maggots and simply dumping them in the sea. Let sealife eat them, and the enzymes get to work on plastics in their stomachs. Best case scenario is that the microbes the maggots use end up surviving in fish guts, and large sections of the ecosystem could develop the ability to eat plastic.
yes, but you'd have to use a fungus that can either eat plastic naturally or is genetically modified to eat plastic, a radiation eating fungi won't eat plastic and vice versa plastic eating fungi will just die when exposed to high radiation.
Most of pollution is useful stuff, just not useful enough to offset the cost of concentrating and processing it. Making that part cheaper makes it easier to recycle, reuse or even store more safely. This doesn't apply to pollution exclusively either - e.g. there's huge amounts of gold dissolved in the ocean, but we still mine it mostly in ground mines - the cost in extracting the gold from ocean water is much higher than using ground mines. But find (or design) an algae that can isolate and concentrate the gold in a shallow sea, and you change the balance. Hydrocarbons are useful; the pollution comes from the bits we didn't properly process (leaks, contaminated water etc.). Both recovering the material and disposing of it is beneficial if cost effective. And (some) hydrocarbons are toxic by themselves, but their components aren't - so decomposing the oil gets rid of the toxicity even if we can't reuse the products. You get some sulfur (valuable) and lots of carbon dioxide and water (both valuable and relatively harmless). Heavy metals are toxic no matter what... but they're also very useful. Again, that's usually how they become part of waste - like people throwing out batteries in dumps. Recovering the waste allows you to reuse the materials in new products. In more "mitigation" and less "recycling" sense, some compounds of heavy metals are no longer toxic, so that's another option. Nitrates are very useful in industry and agriculture. Again, it's mostly a matter of recovering the spilled extras and reusing them for something productive (rather than destroying the environment). Radioactive material... well, there are some useful ways of dealing with radioactive waste, but for the most part, we're doing "containment". Accumulating it allows us to safely store the waste at reasonable costs to avoid environmental exposure. It could also be feed-stock for something productive in theory, but it's tricky to work with (in no small part for security reasons - the equipment that allows you to do useful stuff with radioactive materials can also be used for weapons and such). And don't think "nuclear power plants and bombs" when considering radioactive waste - by far the biggest source of radioactive waste is coal and stone processing and various other mining operations. What wasn't dangerous a kilometer deep or dispersed over a very large volume of soil can be very dangerous when e.g. concentrated in tailing heaps, or leaked into the water supply. Context matters. I could go on. A lot of recycling efforts are hampered by how complicated it is to concentrate stuff. The carbon dioxide and various nitrous and sulfuric oxides that your car produces are very useful for industry and agriculture - but it's not easy to actually make use of them when they're produced in tiny batches all over the world. Make that part easier, and they become useful feed-stock for all sorts of things (e.g. burn that fuel in a power plant, and you can use that "waste" for something useful much easier - like producing fertilizer or feeding algae pools, or even using the waste heat for local heating).
Who else got triggered at the way she says "fungi"? This isn't hate or anything, I'm just trying to figure out who's of a common mind, love the show by the way, keep it up
I've heard of some places trying to cultivate a few more cat tails or reeds to absorb some toxins...? And thinking of a few more commandments which could also provide helpful guidance, in other than ways involving lack of foresight... like don't eat feces, or throw feces in water, like you would with the toilet at home; feces belongs in the woods, buried at least 200 ft. From and campsite, trail, or waters...
I see this working in two directions. 1. The plants or fungi cleans the toxic waste then it becomes toxic. 2. Birds and other herbivores eat the toxic plants and it causes both sickness and passes on health issues to the offspring. But I do see a lot of good if done properly with a lot more research.
What happens to the plants / organisms afterwards? Some of them aren't processing the toxins, just absorbing them. Presumably we then have to contain the plants so that its not just taking the problem from one area to another?
Even without any modification, tobacco is a natural accumulator of cadmium. You smokers have FOUR TIMES the cadmium in your blood as a non-smoker. The Australians are doing some terrific research with these plants. See the yt video called 'Meet the hyperaccumulators: plants that can mine metals'. There may the possibility of actual mining/recovery of desirable metals such as nickel from these plants, some of which are rare. (The sap in that Australian tree is incredible.)
This chick has really improved since her first presentations. i assume you have worked a lot on your vocal control and would probably take a decent level of self awareness, Good job!
So basically the first one is mycore mediation...that concept is already deployed in small “scale clean-ups” from radioactive waste to fungi that can consume plastics.
What happens to the toxic materials once they are absorbed by the tissue of the plant or animal bioremediator? Don't they eventually make it back in circulation?
Plastic eating bacteria is amazing idea! 'Cause there is definitely no way it would be able to roam the streets or pass it's plastic eating genes to any other bacteria that already does.
if they do make plastic eating bacteria, I hope they cant live outside of a lab. imagine every plastic thing suddenly growing slime and kind of "rusting"
Oyster Mushrooms - 0:45
Sunflowers - 2:02
Bivalves - 3:28
Bonfire Moss - 5:16
Alpine Pennycress - 6:42
Tobacco - 8:18
Greater Wax Moth - 9:48
Thanks man. Have to do this for my class. Appreciate it
In other words planting sunflowers will clean soil the more you have
I hate you
The plastic decomposition from the Waxworm homogenate is due mostly to the microbiome (probiotics) of the waxworm. One key player isolates is the novel bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, which produces PETase's (plastic degrading enzymes) such as ISF6_4831 protein.
Plastic bioremediation is what I intend to study for a PhD so I just happen to have been following this one.
Love the show!
Why not plant trees grow mushrooms and sunflowers so soil will be cleaned up faster
9:05 explosive tobacco, that's one way to decrease smoking rates
Cadmium poisoning too perhaps? Isn't that stuff quite nasty?
@@0x8badf00d Honestly, we knowingly consume poison for kicks (alcohol) so I don't think that's going to stop us, ever.
And if people of all different age ranges and ethnicities start dropping dead rapidly from cigarettes, smokers are mostly gonna go "that won't happen to me." They already drop dead - it's called lung cancer.
So that's why you use sunflowers to stop corruption in terraria
Poompkeenzz yos
0_0
😂😂
Lol the coincedence is strong in this one
Oh my goodness, wth?!
One of the most fascinating SciShow episodes in a long time! Super cool stuff.
Regarding number 2 on the list. If Sunflowers absorb the radioactive isotopes will they then emit... solar radiation?
Are you shore?
yes
thats why they make power in the plants vs zombies games.
i need them for my plants vs zombies army duh...
Master Therion
I hope this was just a fluke and doesn't represent a dip in overall quality. This deserves a D. You can do better.
I never realised the engineer in Star Trek Discovery was names after a real mycologist.
Good thing you said it or i would have. Stamets is the man.
I gasped when I saw the name as well. One wonders how many other names in the Trek universes are based on real people. I have no idea. I wish the show could bring back his husband.
Worf is actually named after a real Klingon, I couldn't believe it myself.
He was interviewed in one After Trek episode
The maintenance tunnels aboard ships are called Jefferies tubes after the TOS set designer
Really cool, considering my research project, right now, is about studying the ability for Acidithio Ferrooxidans (a bacteria) to take copper from e-waste and convert it into an ion solution. After that we precipitate the copper ions and harvest (is that the word?) what we hope to be pure copper.
OnlyNeedJuan
Swag
OnlyNeedJuan I love how the bacteria's name is so functional!
I've been researching the tech for mechanical and chemical separation of waste, particularly ewaste, for quite some time now. I'd say your research is genuinely interesting, the actual sepperation of metals with minimum processing would be ideal! Awesome stuff man!
Do you plate out the copper on something?
link to published article?
Mycelium network connecting the multiverse!!
With help from Paul Stamets!
mind = blown! Nice tribute! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Stamets
Number 7: Burger King Foot Lettuce
New cigarette brand, Heavy Metal sticks :D
cigarette
ok edited it
~You will stop selling heavy metal sticks and go have a nice life.~
Do you notice all the different meanings that sentence can represent? "Toxtic waste cleaning organisims"
yes
uhmm no because there are none...
Ganara426 there's four that I see, two of which are nonsense: the waste could be cleaning the organisms (think sparkly clean organisms), the organisms could be cleaning the toxic waste (think sparkly clean toxic waste). Then there's one that makes sense but is clearly not the answer: the toxic waste could be cleaning the organisms from something (think disinfecting your countertop with toxic waste). And finally ofc you have tho obviously correct interpretation most brains will subconsciously snap to: the organisms are cleaning the toxic waste from the environment (think that entire video you just watched)
I don't know if it is the way Olivia is speaking or the audio mixing but this sounds much better.
I always assumed a plastic eating bacteria would evolve in the pacific garbage patch, and then continue on to destroy all the plastic we use
YAY! Olivia! Good to see ya! !^.^!
Is there a danger that any of these bioremediating organisms get eaten by another organism in the environment and the toxin enters the food chain? I'd be concerned about the effects of bioamplification of the toxins at the top of the food chain leading to adverse effects on apex organisms. Would this be more or less harmful than leaving the toxins in place?
Ian Hecht +
Yup, and not just that. As with anything that concentrates stuff, the danger is there. Compare the health effect of having 1kg of Uranium dispersed throughout the Earth's soils equally versus having the same 1 kg of Uranium dissolved in the glass of water you're drinking. There's no solution without trade-offs.
Sort of, but you have to consider why these organisms accumulate toxins at all. Heavy metals in particular are worth thinking about, as they can't be broken down. One of the biggest difficulties of being a plant is preventing things eating your leaves, and filling them with toxic chemicals is one of the more effective solutions.
Short answer is that they shouldn't get eaten because they are too toxic.
@@LuaanTi yeah, the solution is stop mining, refining, and using uranium as a power source.
@@taitjones6310 Right, that's totally with no trade-offs. Thanks for your valuable input.
3:57 I read the side of the ship as 'cheapskate'. Sums me up perfectly.
One extra thing I learned from this video is that a character from Star Trek Discovery was named after a real scientist
What do we do with the organisms that absorbed all the stuff?
When the last tree has been cut down,When the last river has been poisoned,When the last animal has been killed,We will start thinking of ideas to fix our messes
Eternal Frost you are dumb
Nathaniel lebaron Explain
Eternal Frost we are already "thinking about fixing our messes" for example Ikea is going to start using mushroom based packaging that decomposes in 2 weeks. Also a lot of people on Facebook have been sharing the idea to stop using straws at resturaunts for obvious reasons.
Nathaniel lebaron Mabey you didn't understand what I meant,We start thinking of ways to fix our messes when it gets worse The best way to stop our pollution is to prevent it entirely
Nathaniel lebaron Here's an example, Remember zika,The only reason we started to do research and find a cure is because the disease got around fast,It's the things no one thinks about that ends up being too big to handle
So, what do they do with the plants after they absorbed the heavy metals and/or radioactive material?
Before you comment fungi can be pronounced fungi or funji
And apparently fungi or fungee
but, she says funji, and then says fungus
This is another example of how fascinating nature and all the organisms that inhabit our world really are, this furthers my love for things like that
Oyster Mushrooms can also be used to decompose cigarette butts! I know friends who make and sell oyster mushroom containers for this specific purpose! :)
Mycoremediation is actually one of my goals when I become the world's greatest mad microbiologist
"Scientists also smashed up caterpillars..."
Poor caterpillars...
ikr
Yeah... odds are some of those caterpillars weren't ready for so much beer! (Sometimes when you get drunk, you get smashed)
Caveman science
R.I.P
Appreciate this lovely commentator. I am sorry I once commented on a piercing ring that once was in her nose.
She looks cool with and without it.
Olivia's getting better and better
I’m a fun guy
Also, solution to wax caterpillar issue:
Just breed a lot, then mash them into a few tons of plastic omnom paste, then dump it on plastic.
I first read it as "7 orgasms can clean toxic waste"🤔
Lmao
Same.
Hahaha
Do your part!
Are you 10 or something?
You guys should use more short descriptive graphics along with the text slide shows it would help all types of learners absorb more. Love the show.
Very interesting, and exciting possibilities, but also a few concerns: 1) most of the experiments described seem to have been very short, ie, a few hours or days; then what? Do the organisms have to be replaced frequently? What happens after a few months or years? After decades? What happens if they die in place, after accumulating, and concentrating, so much toxic material? What happens after the cleanup, when everyone has left, and some hyper-accumulators are inevitably left behind? 2) What if the microbial organisms escape and spread? What keeps them from wreaking havoc upon our plastic world? Plastic is used everywhere, from deep sea exploration to outer space, in medical equipment, garden hoses and ink pens. What would prevent a man-made catastrophe?
This area of research needs billions of dollars put into it.
Paul Stamets on Joe Rogan's podcast was a very cool conversation about fungi.
After plant absorbed the heavy metal elements but before they die and go rot, they can be uprooted, dried and be thrown into an industrial refining process to retrieve and refine that metal in elemental form. That will both remove hazardous material in our soil and increase the output of industrial products without extra mining.
The question is not merely whether or not these plants can help clean up our messes but what effect out messes have one them as well.
And plants should be a part of our basic clean up cycle.
Geeze, this is freaking amazing. I have only read about the fungi and the moth larvae. So what happens after the plants that don’t break down toxins are done absorbing them? Don’t they eventually have to be disposed of?
Thanks for the science knowledge Lorde!
it's great that we're finding ways in nature to deal with some of the crap we put out, but a huge problem with utilizing these plants and animals is that they will be helping to add these toxins into the food chain. We need to start finding ways to decrease and eventually eliminate our production of toxins, instead of dealing with the symptoms.
I have a question though, if these plants and fungi suck up the toxic waste, what happens when the plant dies? Is it released back into the soil? What would people do with these living sponges once they've done their work? Is there any way to extract these materials for future use?
Im currently researching landoltia punctata or duckweed along with the rest of my class for the purpose of biofule and bioremediation
I see this backfiring on us, and we end up just throwing off a bunch more ecosystems with human introduced invasive species.
Breed ones that don't reproduce. We already do that to lower the number of mosquitos in areas that are at high risk for the diseases they carry
Mohawk2
There is no chance that we could do enough casual damage to the planet as to make it completely lifeless. We'd have to do something of that magnitude on purpose. And, even then, we'd die off well before we finished the job.
Mohawk2
Wrong, buddy. Hyperbole is an adjective. You can't have "a hyperbole." Also, hyperbole is one of my favorite words. I use it constantly.
Mohawk2
Lol. Ok, toúchè. You got one over on someone with a PhD. Good on you. Seriously. I never mind being proven incorrect. But, the insult is unnecessary and immature.
J Girl or just general genetic engineering! This is also why they're looking at a lot of plants, I think: with the understanding not every one could be used everywhere
It's so exciting to here there is something natural that will break down plastic. Hopefully they can isolate the enzyme or whatever is causing the breakdown so they can put in something that won't cause a disaster elsewhere in the ecosystem.
#1 works in youtube too. Fun guy can relieve toxic behaviour stress.
1:58 she said it just as I was putting mushrooms on my pizza :)
neuron1618
Ew
Don't forget the anchovies
And those dank guddy ol rostef oliver mmm mmmm
Wait...somebody is growing self-exploding cigars??
The fact that we can clean up pollution is not an invitation or excuse to pollute more
I must admit initially I didn’t really like Olivia as a presenter. However, after months of watching her I must say she has improved so much and she has really grown on me 😄 Good job Olivia! I look forward to your videos now!
QUESTION: What do you do with the organism once it has absorbed the pollutants? Are there measures to ensure that any introduction of a species will not lead to it becoming invasive?
Great episode, especially liked the ending!
This was some interesting information. The bi valves could be dangerous. They are an easy food source, so they could possibly spread the contaminants into the food chain. My daughter loves sunflowers so this will make her day when we watch it.
Cleaning up the comments
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
Both pronunciations of fungi are correct, y'all. Calm down.
You seem mellow. I bet you're a really fun guy.
The Rogue Wolf How very original of you. 🙄
I'm just happy she didn't call fungi plants
There both correct, but the way she says it sounds stupid. It's better to be correct without sounding stupid
*They're*. You're welcome.
Paul Stamets and his research are the coolest!
@5:21 Source for flint it being ongoing ? Isn't the lead no longer in the water there?
I've found it hard to find non-bias sources on this...
Thank you for metioning Flint, MI. It's unfortunate it is still an issue here.
LOL!
this gives the Sunflower's name an entire new dimension of "honour thy name"
I love you guys seriously! So awesome.
Is it just me or is she a gorgeous version of Amy off the big bang theory? A nerd and beautiful, i love you :)
Bamboo and hemp are excellent phyto-remediators and grow very quickly.
Could we use it to dissolve the great plastic patches in the oceans?
Probably to some extent
Christian O. Holz Maybe if they find the plastic eating gene, isolate it, and put it into a naturally occurring organism that eats things in the area. That would be spectacular.
I had wondered about farming huge numbers of the wax maggots and simply dumping them in the sea. Let sealife eat them, and the enzymes get to work on plastics in their stomachs. Best case scenario is that the microbes the maggots use end up surviving in fish guts, and large sections of the ecosystem could develop the ability to eat plastic.
yes, but you'd have to use a fungus that can either eat plastic naturally or is genetically modified to eat plastic, a radiation eating fungi won't eat plastic and vice versa plastic eating fungi will just die when exposed to high radiation.
Both speak. Thank you for the captions.
Good show. Learned something new today
Great vid, thanks.
My question is, what happens witht he plants and such after they have sucked up the toxins? how are they disposed of?
Ravenwolf Foxtrack make sunflowers seeds
That's actually a really good question, I wonder what they do with the tons of now contaminated sunflowers?
Most of pollution is useful stuff, just not useful enough to offset the cost of concentrating and processing it. Making that part cheaper makes it easier to recycle, reuse or even store more safely. This doesn't apply to pollution exclusively either - e.g. there's huge amounts of gold dissolved in the ocean, but we still mine it mostly in ground mines - the cost in extracting the gold from ocean water is much higher than using ground mines. But find (or design) an algae that can isolate and concentrate the gold in a shallow sea, and you change the balance.
Hydrocarbons are useful; the pollution comes from the bits we didn't properly process (leaks, contaminated water etc.). Both recovering the material and disposing of it is beneficial if cost effective. And (some) hydrocarbons are toxic by themselves, but their components aren't - so decomposing the oil gets rid of the toxicity even if we can't reuse the products. You get some sulfur (valuable) and lots of carbon dioxide and water (both valuable and relatively harmless).
Heavy metals are toxic no matter what... but they're also very useful. Again, that's usually how they become part of waste - like people throwing out batteries in dumps. Recovering the waste allows you to reuse the materials in new products. In more "mitigation" and less "recycling" sense, some compounds of heavy metals are no longer toxic, so that's another option.
Nitrates are very useful in industry and agriculture. Again, it's mostly a matter of recovering the spilled extras and reusing them for something productive (rather than destroying the environment).
Radioactive material... well, there are some useful ways of dealing with radioactive waste, but for the most part, we're doing "containment". Accumulating it allows us to safely store the waste at reasonable costs to avoid environmental exposure. It could also be feed-stock for something productive in theory, but it's tricky to work with (in no small part for security reasons - the equipment that allows you to do useful stuff with radioactive materials can also be used for weapons and such). And don't think "nuclear power plants and bombs" when considering radioactive waste - by far the biggest source of radioactive waste is coal and stone processing and various other mining operations. What wasn't dangerous a kilometer deep or dispersed over a very large volume of soil can be very dangerous when e.g. concentrated in tailing heaps, or leaked into the water supply. Context matters.
I could go on. A lot of recycling efforts are hampered by how complicated it is to concentrate stuff. The carbon dioxide and various nitrous and sulfuric oxides that your car produces are very useful for industry and agriculture - but it's not easy to actually make use of them when they're produced in tiny batches all over the world. Make that part easier, and they become useful feed-stock for all sorts of things (e.g. burn that fuel in a power plant, and you can use that "waste" for something useful much easier - like producing fertilizer or feeding algae pools, or even using the waste heat for local heating).
if you can get material that is 70% lead by weight then that is a viable ore. You can sell it.
Paul Stamets was interviewed by Joe Rogan. The dude has a lot of cool things to say about mushrooms, including the trippy kind.
Very worthwhile and interesting. GJ, thankyou x
this episode is awesome.
Who else got triggered at the way she says "fungi"? This isn't hate or anything, I'm just trying to figure out who's of a common mind, love the show by the way, keep it up
#6... FINALLY! The perfect exploding cigarettes!
What did the cleanup crews do with the sunflower stalks after they grew?
Stamets is the man. Love that guy.
Can any of these clean up dioxin (specifically, agent orange)? If not, how can it be cleaned?
Great show, great hosts. Thanks a lot for making us smarter !
Woot! More Olivia! More cleaning the environment too!
Not just toxic waste...but OUR toxic waste.
Some peace of mind and hope for the future.
I've heard of some places trying to cultivate a few more cat tails or reeds to absorb some toxins...? And thinking of a few more commandments which could also provide helpful guidance, in other than ways involving lack of foresight... like don't eat feces, or throw feces in water, like you would with the toilet at home; feces belongs in the woods, buried at least 200 ft. From and campsite, trail, or waters...
QQ: what do they do with the contaminated biomass? and how do they prevent these species from becoming invasive?
I see this working in two directions. 1. The plants or fungi cleans the toxic waste then it becomes toxic. 2. Birds and other herbivores eat the toxic plants and it causes both sickness and passes on health issues to the offspring. But I do see a lot of good if done properly with a lot more research.
This was insanely interesting
Cool!!!! I hope that we actually end up using some of these.
Nature stepping in to fix our incompetence with waste management.
A mycologist named Paul Stamets? Hmm, where have I heard that before...
What happens to the plants / organisms afterwards? Some of them aren't processing the toxins, just absorbing them. Presumably we then have to contain the plants so that its not just taking the problem from one area to another?
00:17 - oil is mentioned - America invades
Sky Koudo SOA lol😂😂👌👌
Good work, I bet you ripped that meme off facebook all by yourself
r/dankmemes you normie REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
how old is this joke
@@oldcowbb Since we invaded Iraq in 1990? Or 91? I'll have to look up the dates now. Thanks!
Even without any modification, tobacco is a natural accumulator of cadmium. You smokers have FOUR TIMES the cadmium in your blood as a non-smoker. The Australians are doing some terrific research with these plants. See the yt video called 'Meet the hyperaccumulators: plants that can mine metals'. There may the possibility of actual mining/recovery of desirable metals such as nickel from these plants, some of which are rare. (The sap in that Australian tree is incredible.)
Did the hyperaccumulating cabbage develop it as a defense against getting eaten, or as an adaptation to dealing with heavy-metal-rich soil?
MY CABBAGES
This chick has really improved since her first presentations. i assume you have worked a lot on your vocal control and would probably take a decent level of self awareness, Good job!
So basically the first one is mycore mediation...that concept is already deployed in small “scale clean-ups” from radioactive waste to fungi that can consume plastics.
Olivia is the best.
We'll show those smokers! Have an extra dose of Cadmium!
What happens to the toxic materials once they are absorbed by the tissue of the plant or animal bioremediator? Don't they eventually make it back in circulation?
Plastic eating bacteria is amazing idea! 'Cause there is definitely no way it would be able to roam the streets or pass it's plastic eating genes to any other bacteria that already does.
I was thinking of breeding some wax worms (moths) for my animals. It’s interesting to know they’re capable of cutting through plastic.
Nature is awesome
Thank you, Olivia Gordon, for the knowledge! 😇
Knowledge is power
11:36 ... some of the most toxic areas in the United States, called Super Fun... d sites.
I hear that every time.
if they do make plastic eating bacteria, I hope they cant live outside of a lab. imagine every plastic thing suddenly growing slime and kind of "rusting"