hope-for-the-planet:

hope-for-the-planet:

The increasing amount of plastic being added to our environments has created intense selection pressure for microbes that can break down plastic for energy.

Looking at environmental DNA samples, researchers have found 30,000 different enzymes capable of digesting different types of plastic. Almost 60% did not fit into any known enzyme types.

While previous plastic-eating microbes had primarily been found in garbage dumps or recycling plants (locations with very high levels of plastic), the enzymes in this study were collected from soil and ocean water throughout the world, meaning this phenomenon is even more widespread than we thought.

The goal is to utilize these enzymes for more efficient recycling–essentially breaking plastic down into its basic building blocks to reduce or even eliminate the need for new virgin plastic. An enzyme created in 2020 is already being used to recycle plastic bottles in only a couple of hours.

Thanks to the anonymous individual who sent this in!

I see a lot of people commenting along the lines of “I thought they meant bugs as in insects and I imagined beetles eating plastic, this is kinda disappointing”.

Don’t worry–there are insects that eat plastic too!

Superworms and Mealworms (darkling beetle larvae):

Waxworms (wax moth caterpillars):

There are quite possibly more out there that we don’t even know about–it’s likely we only noticed that the insects above could eat plastic because they are all commonly cultured by humans.

Some fungi are also able to break down plastic.

Originally posted by ozkamal

barkerverse:

HELLRAISER (1987)

dynastylnoire:

shameshomalo:

phrenotobe:

whycantibeepbadoop:

shaelit:

great-tweets:

“Update: The student who wrote the letter has been found and we’re in the process of finding a way to reward her for her actions. Very grateful for what she did”

I love this mental image of this quietly horrified and righteous 6th grader just being like ma’am you can’t do that

6th grader:

#the drawing including kids in the bus windows going like :O kills me

All the kids at the same time “ OOOOOOOOOO”

weirdlandtv:

THE INTELLIGENT WOMAN’S GUIDE TO ATOMIC RADIATION (1964). Cover art by Bruce Robertson.

gojira-ekkusu:

怪獣No.1ゴジラ - “Number 1 Monster Godzilla” (1972)

ultrafacts:

Source: [x]

Click HERE for more facts!

plainoldsamvimes-deactivated202:

sudorm-rfslash:

astrodidact:

Corporations when labor is cheap: sorry guys, wages are dictated by the same principles of supply and demand that govern the price of all commodities. I don’t decide your salary, the free market does

Corporations when labor is expensive: how dare you all threaten my power to set whatever wages I want

It’s even worse than that once you account for all the truckers who are coerced into being labelled “independent contractors” and responsible for the costs of maintaining their rigs.

A confirming source, with more details, for the curious: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/truck-stop/481926/

theconcealedweapon:

parcival2:

trumpgret:

187 minutes - [ https://i.redd.it/1jpk2mqjsp981.jpg]

horrorgifs:

DUANE JONES in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) dir. George A. Romero