The Orient Land Trust: A trip report

[nuduke]

bad bacteria that dominates by being fed crappy food that it likes [/l]

Interesting to contemplate that there might be a bacterium that has carved out an niche that specialises in the metabolism of half digested Macdonald's burgers and another completely different species living solely on Wendy's
John

[jbeegoode]

Here, back when I ate that stuff, my belly actually digested one better than the other. A lesser bloated belly full. But, I fear that the one that reacted better did so because there was less nutrition to feed on than the other, ignoring it.   
Jbee

[eyesup]

I was in a conversation once with some friends of ours, one is a MD and his wife is a micro-biologist. For her thesis she studied how to genetically design microbes that could be used in the remediation of nuclear waste. According to her, the bugs could consume heavy metals. She said you can design the DNA for a microbe to do anything you want.

She wrote that paper in the 1980’s. No telling where they are now in the technology.

Duane

[Peter S]

There was a TV show here back in the ‘60s or ‘70s called Doomwatch, in which environmentalists battled with threats to the human race. Ground breaking then but pretty much everyday now. I always remember the episode in which someone had developed a bug that could eat plastic and would save the world from it, until the day it escaped and ateany plastic it could find- cue planes falling out of the sky etc. We have been warned.

[BlueTrain]

The human race has always had threats. Everything has threats. To live with no effort and with plenty of food is to live the life of cattle.

[nuduke]

I was in a conversation once with some friends of ours, one is a MD and his wife is a micro-biologist. For her thesis she studied how to genetically design microbes that could be used in the remediation of nuclear waste. According to her, the bugs could consume heavy metals. She said you can design the DNA for a microbe to do anything you want.
She wrote that paper in the 1980’s. No telling where they are now in the technology.
Duane

As a biochemistry student in the 1970s that sort of technology was just beginning to be recognised as potentially useful.  I thought I might look for a job in it but couldn't find one!  Nowadays biomining of low grade ores by bugs as well as bioleaching - recovery of metal from insoluble industrial waste and other methods of getting resources out of our waste is becoming more developed.  I believe there are even schemes to break down electronics waste by bacteria releasing gold, germanium and other reusable solutes from the resulting goop.
Let's here it for the bugs!
John

[eyesup]

There is nothing wrong with the occasional, odd dystopian story or movie. They are there to remind and warn us against Hubris, Arrogance and other elected officials. The lure of wealth and fame is lethal bait. These types of stories remind me of the conqueror’s triumph on returning to Rome, with a slave holding a laurel over his head while whispering; “All glory is fleeting. All glory is fleeting.”

The issue isn’t whether humans have always faced threats. We seem to always find a way to deal with them, it’s when a human created threat with no natural counter-balance arrives on the scene. Plastics do not occur naturally, neither do bugs that eat them or that eat heavy metals. Having been artificially created, bugs that then begin to NATURALLY mutate become something unknown. Any human created microbe or virus that has packed it’s bags for parts unknown, will ignore whether it’s attacking the owner or the cattle.

Some mutations can be predicted in the lab but not random mutations on the scale that nature can. We don’t have the computational capacity to do it. This is why some people simply do not trust GMO’s. Not only haven’t they been fully field tested, they can’t be. And the scientist cannot 100% guarantee that the thing is safe and predictable. And no self respecting scientist would.

It’s a crap shoot. It’s a crap shoot with some predictable results, but the end of the day, STILL a crap shoot.

Duane