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Scientists Turn Plastic Waste Into Edible Cookies Because That’s the Future We Deserve (futurism.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] 2 points 4 days ago (1 child)

No, but there is a great prize for any organism that figures it out and unlocks all that plentiful energy, especially if it encodes the "recipe" for future generations.

And that's just natural selection. Artificial selection could possibly speed that up, too, if it's actually possible.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Artificial selection has got to be possible, given we’ve done it to our fruit merely by happenstance over the generations. And our dogs, too.

    I wonder if plastic would be more like diamond. We don’t see enzymes breaking down diamond, even though that’s been around for plenty of time.

    Natural selection could probably get there if the conditions are right, just as artificial selection could probably force those conditions in a lab. Yet I feel the it’s probably much less likely than was the case with wood.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago

    Artificial selection has got to be possible, given we’ve done it to our fruit merely by happenstance over the generations. And our dogs, too.

    No, I wasn't clear. I meant for the "it" in my sentence to refer to biologically breaking down plastics, not to refer to artificial selection.

    If, for example, wax moth caterpillars can break down polyethylene in small quantities in certain concentrations, then perhaps artificial selection can amplify that effect by expanding the range of concentrations that can be treated that way, or otherwise improving efficiency or volume of processing, etc.

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