Plastic eating fungus

[Rhizomorph13]

Not a joke, apparently this fungus will eat polyurethane!

http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/plastic-eating-fungi/

[Minimalist]

A group of students and professors from Yale University have found a fungi in the Amazon rainforest that can degrade and utilize the common plastic polyurethane (PUR)

Ain't evolution wonderful!

[Shell B]

I don't have time to read the article, at the moment. I do find the topic fascinating, though. If you don't mind, could you tell me if they discussed real world implications? Is there any potential backlash to using this fungus?

[m.condon]

When I first read it my initial reaction was to find out what sort of positive effects this fungus could have. If we found a way to regulate it , the fungus could help break down plastics in landfills (just a theory) But I am sure that there would be some sort of negative consequence I am unaware of

[Rhizomorph13]

I don't have time to read the article, at the moment. I do find the topic fascinating, though. If you don't mind, could you tell me if they discussed real world implications? Is there any potential backlash to using this fungus?

The article is very short and just mention the fungus and how it can live off the PUR in an oxygen-free environment. Oh, and that, when coming into contact with humans, it degrades the frontal lobe and stimulates the limbic system as well as the centers that drive primal desires basically turning them into slathering sex freaks determined to fuck and eat with no concern for their own well-being.

Ok that second sentence is there just to be cheeky.

Moving right along. I have imagined a future where our waste streams are handled by macro digesters then vats of nanomachines that would break things down further and reconstruct them into stable forms that could be used as raw materials. I never imagined that there would be organic solutions, like plastic eating fungus, but I like that fact. In the future we might be able to deal with our waste streams through the proper use of oganic digesters although I'm not sure what the fungus turns the plastic into? Is the mycelial structures polyurethane?

[The Grand Nudger]

There's an organic solution to every challenge this planet has thrown at us (and by us, I mean the great and general us, life), why not organic solutions to our own problems? Perhaps we should spend more money in botany, ag, and just biology in general. The private sector took our foundations and availed itself of the "biotech revolution", another missed chance for the greater good.

Like the air you breathe? Life does that. The food you eat? Life again. Tho fuels we use to exploit our energy stores...again, life is the culprit. Every machine we've ever dreamt up, mimicing some function or mechanism of life. All of it orchestrated and watched over by, you guessed it, life-ourselves.

[Rhizomorph13]

Yeah, life is pretty great, but there are balances to be struck with life processes. So, say you have an over abundance of bunnies in an area, well you could intruduce wolves to take care of that problem but then you would have an overabundance of wolves so you would need to call in the angry gorillas to hunt them down, then you would need needlesnakes to take out the angry gorillas, then you would have a needlesnake problem. But! if you had a robot army modeled after flying insects that could selectivly euthanize bunnies to keep their numbers to a manageable level then you could control the population. OR! since the bunnies were only brought in to provide cute pets for Easter, you could just make lifelike bunnies from cybernetic nanoregenrative synthflesh and the bunnies could be programmed to train the children to read! AND when the time is right and skynet becomes sentient, the bunnies would overthrow our government and present us with a candyland of benevolent dictatorship that resembles a cross between The Wizard of Oz and Surrogates with a little bit of gritty Blade Runner thrown in there for artistic interest.

It is my plastic fantasy.

[Jackalope]

I for one welcome our new cybernetic nanoregenerative bunny overlords.

[The Grand Nudger]

But will there be porn?

[Rhizomorph13]

There will be synths ready to do your bidding, so, no.

edit: human synths of course