So basically you are supposed to engineer a fungus or bacteria that will entice the ant with chemotaxants akin to those leaves (or something other and more potent) to bring our trash to its colony. It seems like a bitter trade with all of the biotoxins that could evolve out of this sinister plot. Even with specific tunnels the leachate will find its way in the water table. All of a sudden you'd be facing a colony collapse while seeing an en environmental disaster with bioaccumulation of whatever and however plastics break down.
"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."
Had you referenced what you meant I wouldn't have to look for a publication on the topic. They don't actively seek-out/forage for microplastics as anything small from 0.2 to 1000 micrometers and buoyant (in other words, unspoiled by biofilm at 5 m) will do. The coral funnels in anything of that size that comes its way. They did raise the coral in controlled settings. What surprised me is that they didn't sequence its gut microbiome.
The coral polyps can close off the microplastics but what use is it locked up in its underchambers?
"... a working solution to even part of this problem is 'worth' trillions." Which again due to its worth no one is ready to pay or even put a price tag on it. Reach out to UN. Have them put a price. Make it an international challenge. See if anyone shows up for it. Keep the license to demand the award back if the BS artist claims it.
In my view, the best you can do to plastics is find a way to bring it down to its monomer components or leave as much of it as you can for nature to evolve a solution, while not looking for recipes for new types of the polymers. Stick to utmost environmentally friendly ones.
On Sunday, January 27, 2019 at 3:23:26 AM UTC-5, Jonathan Cline wrote:
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 <yuriy...@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
## jcl...@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################
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