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Fringey Mini: Pac Man for plastic · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea, I've got it ready to go. For the
• 0:03
  most part, positive stories today. For the most
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  part. So the blame cannot be on me if it's a
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  negative one. A choice of positive stories? This
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  is incredible. Yeah. So you have a choice between
• 0:13
  a story on plastic. And that's positive? In fact,
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  two stories on plastic. I'm gonna have to get
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  you to choose one or two. One positive, okay.
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  Story on brain implants. Story on space. And
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  they're all positive, you see. Sorry. Story on
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  Facebook. So there are four choices today. Mostly
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  positive. I'm going to say none of these sound
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  positive on first glance. I want to go with plastic
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  because they're positive? One or two. A very
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  important question here. One or two. Well, I'm
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  very concerned. One might not be positive. I'm
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  going to go two. Okay. Positive plastic too?
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  Question mark? This story comes from a website
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  called Good Green News. That sounds fantastic.
• 1:04
  I'm really happy with my choice right now. Written
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  by Ryan Davis on September 3rd, 2026. Article
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  title. Newly discovered Pac -Man enzyme can break
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  down some plastics in less than three months.
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  I like that. What is this enzyme? Let's hear
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  all about it. You just wait till you hear it's
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  E. coli. I would love if they could put it to
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  good use. To good use. To be fair, it does have
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  a good use. It helps us poop. It's the bad parts
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  where it's not worth needing to make poop. Okay,
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  let's hear it. Okay. Researchers have identified
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  a dual -purpose enzyme that can chomp through
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  certain types of plastic as easily as Pac -Man
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  devours ghosts in the 1980s arcade classic. Love
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  that. Around 1 ,000 miles north of Hawaii, a
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  vast accumulation of plastic and other trash
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  floats on the surface of the Pacific, some of
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  which has been trapped there by ocean currents
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  for more than 50 years. That is actually mind
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  boggling that plastic can just sit there for
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  50 years. I know it's crazy to think about, but
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  like, yeah, the area known as the Great Pacific
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  Garbage Patch covers an area around the size
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  of two Texas's is one of the most infamous examples
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  of plastic pollution. It's a damning visualization
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  of how convenience has for too long and for too
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  many of us been a higher priority than environmental
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  conservation. But fortunately. Not everyone is
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  so indifferent to the mass of microplastic spoiling
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  our Sheridan Maloo, not least researchers at
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  the University of Constance who'd recently discovered
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  a new type of plastic degrading enzyme that could
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  be unleashed on garbage patches worldwide. The
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  microbe, which the team has dubbed the Pac -Man
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  enzyme due to its wide open structure that resembles
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  everyone's favorite 1980 arcade game protagonist,
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  can break down some types of plastics such as
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  cellulose in less than three months. That's crazy.
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  Quote, the plastosphere is a new habitat in our
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  environment. Humans have only been introducing
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  plastic into the environment in significant quantities
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  for about 50 to 75 years. End quote. Explained
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  David Schlaheck, a professor of microbial ecology
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  and limnic microbiology at the University of
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  Constance. Quote, since then, it has theoretically
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  been available to microbial communities such
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  as bacteria, yeast, and fungi as an additional
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  source of carbon and energy for their growth.
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  End quote. The team whose study was published
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  in the ISME journal identified the enzyme after
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  burying small pieces of bioplastic film in soil
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  at the university's botanical garden and looking
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  at how the materials had degraded after one year.
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  They found that the plastic in some soil samples
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  was pocked with tiny holes that happened to exactly
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  match the size of a specific bacteria that was
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  much more abundant in these samples. This suggests
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  that certain bacteria have plastic eating enzymes
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  attached to their surface and challenges a widely
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  held assumption that bacteria simply disperse
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  enzymes and wait for them to break down materials.
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  Quote, I find this encouraging because it seems
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  that bacteria can adapt to breaking down polyester
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  plastics more quickly than we expected, end quote
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  said Schlehec. adding that utilizing microbes
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  in this way, quote, would be very helpful for
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  cases where plastic escapes recycling and ultimately
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  ends up as waste in the environment, end quote.
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  After reproducing the enzyme in the laboratory
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  for further testing, the researchers found that
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  it not only broke down plastic, but also penicillin
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  type antibiotics. This dual function is a potentially
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  significant discovery. As research has shown,
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  there to be an unusually high prevalence of antibiotic
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  resistant genes in the plasosphere. The Pacman
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  enzyme could help limit the spread of these genes
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  into the wider environment. The University of
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  Constance team is not alone in focusing on microbial
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  solutions to sustainability problems. Researchers
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  at Southern Illinois University recently developed
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  a recipe for upcycling plastic waste into protein
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  -rich edible cookies using yeast microbes. Interesting.
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  Which links to another article, but I don't know
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  how long we've been going No, let's not do the
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  other article. Let's go along enough. Okay, okay
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  That was a good hook at the end of the article
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  though I got it So, yeah, I guess there's some
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  good in the world. I mean that's not gonna just
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  getting rid of the great plastic island I forget
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  what they called it isn't going to fix everything,
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  but it's kind of nice to be able to do. That
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  is crazy. First of all, couple comments. Is that
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  the end of the article? Sorry, end of article.
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  I should have said yes. Second comment. The plastic
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  island is two times the size of Texas. Yeah.
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  That's insane. Texas is one of the bigger states.
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  Second biggest, yeah. Number two. You know...
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  I don't know that I want to say this on the podcast,
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  but I'm going to say it on the podcast. I took
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  a philosophy class because I went to a Christian
• 6:00
  college. Not for Christian purposes. You should
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  ask. I took a philosophy class that was whether,
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  you know, science versus something, whether God
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  exists or not. It was a really interesting course,
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  but one of the arguments towards God existing,
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  which I don't really think is an argument, but
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  comes into play here is isn't it crazy how some
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  things just fit together so perfectly you take
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  this enzyme for instance that otherwise i don't
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  know what it would be doing if we didn't have
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  penicillin or plastic that's two times the size
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  of texas in the ocean that it couldn't eat And
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  if humans weren't here with those things, what
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  would it otherwise be doing? Probably something.
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  It wouldn't be there. It's as simple as that.
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  Isn't that crazy? There's a weird misunderstanding
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  of a thing existing versus a thing evolving to
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  fit a niche. that is present in your argument
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  here. I love that you have an answer. Well, and
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  sorry, I just finished reading and watching Project
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  Hail Mary, and they do touch on this at the end
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  of the book, is that you can, just because a
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  species doesn't do what you want it to do doesn't
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  mean you can't have something do what you want
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  it over a course of several lifetimes. And the
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  whole fact is, if there is something that could
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  be eaten to be turned into energy, eventually
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  evolution will create something that can. Like
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  we've discovered fungus that eat radiation. We
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  have discovered several enzymes at this point
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  that can eat plastic over different So it's just
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  kind of like create it Yeah, and because that
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  potential energy source does exist eventually
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  something is going to evolve to be able to utilize
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  it otherwise we're gonna kill ourselves out with
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  all of this i love that exactly and it's kind
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  of like the first mass extinction happened because
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  trees turned everything into oxygen and nothing
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  could survive and nothing knew how to break down
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  trees so eventually something evolved to be able
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  to break down trees, because it had to. And that
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  would be humans that hacked them all down. Yeah,
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  and ate them, yes. Yeah, eat them. Yeah, that's
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  how it worked. As everybody remembers, the 1200s.
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  So number three is that I will read that book
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  now, because you did offer it to me, so I think
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  I will read that. Well, that's good, but you
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  will now have to wait. Isn't that interesting
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  though everything has it's like I know law has
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  that little scale of justice Yeah, well, and
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  I do just want to add at this point to yes. Everything
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  will come into balance eventually It doesn't
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  mean it will happen on a human scale like just
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  because the earth will be Inhabitable for millions
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  of years doesn't mean it will be inhabitable
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  for humans. Yeah And that's the important thing
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  that we always need to remember when we're talking
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  about these things that are going to drastically
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  change the world. The earth will come out okay.
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  And that's the good thing to realize over 48
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  hours, probably. Yeah, well, you guys will have
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  48 hours for sure. Whether or not there's plastic
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  in your hands that are being eaten by... amoebas
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  that have now been discovered? Probably not,
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  but they might have been, I don't know. You just
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  look at your plastics and tell us. Anyhow, bye.