Bacterial Toxic Remediation
Jamais Cascio, 9 Sep 04
The future is bacterial.
We've noted the various capabilities of bacteria numerous times, and today Wired News gives us yet another example of the power of our unicellular siblings: a bacteria which can turn styrene, a toxic by-product of the polystyrene industry, and turn it into a useful biodegradable plastic. Not only is this a natural process for removing environmental toxins, it's also an example of turning "waste" into "feedstock" -- a critical step for truly sustainable industry.
I believe (but I might be wrong) that bacteria are prokaryote and not eukaryote organisms...
Posted by: Chris Laprun on 9 Sep 04
Ah, crud. Misread my "Correlated History of Earth" wall-chart.
Fixed in the text. Sorry about that.
Posted by: Jamais Cascio on 9 Sep 04
