Re: [DIYbio] Re: Uplifting Ants

It might not be as sci fi as imagined. Some ants collect bioproducts
from their environment such as leaves, carry these back to their
habitat into specific areas of their tunnels, and live off the fungus
which grows on the biowaste. Meanwhile other species such as small
marine organisms have been recently shown to actively seek out
microplastics to eat (for reasons unknown, possibly 'smell' or color),
even if this results in their own starvation since eating plastics is
harmful and non-nutritious. Therefore small organisms do actively
forage for microplastics even at their own irrational expense of
energy. The missing aspect is some biomechanism to degrade the
micro-waste after collection.

It's a far better idea than the original post by any measure.

Impact of microplastics on the global economy has been estimated in
the trillions (over the next century) as a conservative number when
considering the collapse of species across food chains due to
environmental pollution. Therefore a working solution to even part of
this problem is 'worth' trillions.

On 1/26/19, A some body again <yuriyology@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't believe anyone volunteered a trillion dollars towards a solution.
>
> You might as well create a black hole for an exclusively plastic and other
> waste product diet.
>
> Or route out planned obsolescence.
>
> On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 3:39:34 PM UTC-5, Jonathan Cline wrote:
>>
>> Evolve ant colonies to collect and/or digest plastic pollution and you
>> have a world-saving and trillion-dollar award winning project.
>>
>>
>> --
>> ## Jonathan Cline
>> ## jcl...@ieee.org <javascript:>
>> ## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
>> ########################
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 2:55:15 AM UTC-8, Ozymandias wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I thought about the following experiment:
>>>
>>> 2 or more ant colonies
>>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Any input?
>>>
>>
--
## Jonathan Cline
## jcline@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################

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