Hadn’t Heard A Peep In The Media About This, Have You?

@Carissimi was told by someone who was a scientist 10 years ago that 100 years worth of technology has been suppressed and withheld from the people of this world. Imagine what kind of world we could have with the benefits of these technologies. I think it would blow our minds to know all of them. Everything from transportation, cheap way of getting off-grid electricity from the air, inexpensive medical cures etc.

I believe it. What concerns me are these “Deep Fake” videos that can make anyone look like they are dong anything. This makes me think about reality. What if there is technology now, or in the future, that can project these deep fakes as a hologram. We would witness a scene before us (maybe not too close) that would look real to our eyes, yet be nothing but a deep fake projection. Sounds like science fiction, but so did smart phones, 50-years ago. @cherokeepatti

@Carissimi It will not do much, at least in the foreseeable future, to alleviate the climate crisis. Here is an explanation of one of the reasons, among many, from the site freethink.com (Referring to potential large-scale processes using these bacteria)
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They cost too much. These processes can be expensive. Further, most solutions simply break down plastic to its original monomers, which are really only useful for creating more plastic.

This has two problems: one, it doesn’t reduce the amount of plastic in the world, and two, making new plastic is already really cheap. Creating a costly factory, shipping tons of waste to it, and having bacteria slowly churn out ingredients that are worth virtually nothing — and still aren’t biodegradable — isn’t a great business model or arguably even an efficient use of taxpayer funds.

@Virgo79 It should have been a big f*cking deal considering the environmental damage that plastics are causing.

@cherokeepatti that's the way it works, they wasnt going to profit from degrading plastic.

@Budwick The existence of plastic-eating bacteria has been known long before this. (The meme is sensationalistic but inaccurate.) But all that the bacteria do is to break down the polymers of plastic into monomers, which are still not biodegradable, and are only useful for making more plastic. And there are a lot cheaper ways to make more plastic.

So, while the bacteria might in principle be a way to "recycle" plastic, building a factory that would do all this, and extracting all that plastic from water and shipping it to the factory, with no profit margin for the company that owns the factory or the people who do the extracting and shipping, is probably not going to work financially.

@DrWatson [quote]shipping it to the factory, with no profit margin for the company that owns the factory or the people who do the extracting and shipping, is probably not going to work financially.[/quote]

Hi Doc, you may have a handle on the bacteria works, but you need some work on business economics. A company that has a business model of no profit margin isn't gonna go anywhere.

I see PSA's all the time with a zillion plastic bottle in the lakes and oceans and causing problems. The lay person sees the plastic eating bacteria as maybe this is good kind of thing. You have pointed out that it doesn't really move us forward at all.

So, we gotta collect all that plastic!

@Budwick I agree that a company that foresees no profit margin isn't going anywhere. That was what I was trying to convey.

No. Bill Nye the science guy needs to expose this. The public might take him seriously. @dancingtongue

@dancingtongue It's too bad the News Networks no longer run how they used to run in the past. The News networks used to be about spreading the News regardless of how bad or good it made someone or something look and from my understanding they didn't make any money. Nowadays News Networks care more about making money. What's making money these days? Just watch any of the mainstream news networks and you'll see for yourself.

@HankHill Absolutely true. You can thank the politicians -- both parties -- for forcing the FCC to abandon its Fairness doctrine of providing equal time, separating news operations from entertainment operations, and carrying a certain amount of local news in order to keep their licenses. You will notice you don't see as many PSAs (Public Service Announcements) anymore either. 60 Minutes showed that broadcast news could be a big money maker if packaged as entertainment with little concern for objectivity or balance. And Mike Wallace thought it was a badge of honor that they were the first broadcast news program to be profitable! It spelled the end of news as news over the air.

And print news has been done in by both broadcast news and social media, and now streaming. There are only a handful -- if that many -- publications with sufficient subscriber bases and advertising revenues to maintain large reporting staffs. Instead of having specialized reporters assigned to specific segments of the economy, politics, world, who become knowledgeable on their areas of responsibilities, build up trusted contacts in those areas, and have the time to thoroughly research and vet their stories, you have a bunch of journalists all racing against the clock for "breaking" and "trending" rehashs to compete against what is being given away on broadcast and social media.

@dancingtongue Yep, also Kristallnacht, and just a few months before the SS St Louis sailed from Hamburg to Cuba and the US, where Roosevelt turned it away.

Apparently not many champions of freedom around in 1938 to pick from, so they went for the devil.

@Heartlander Unfortunately, true. But then Person of the Year shouldn't be mistaken for the Nobel Peace Prize -- it goes to the person most impacting the news for the year (bad or good), not the desired outcome.

@dancingtongue Good point. In Greta's case it looks more like an attempt by the tail to wag a dog :)

@MrAboo The meme lies. She was never nominated for Person of the year. She was not the first person to discover plastic-eating bacteria. She does not meet Time's criterion for influencing the course of history. Student projects are great educational experiences for the students, but they are not ground-breaking science.

There is no story here.

@Lukeman don't believe everything you read on the internet. You can check the lists for nominees for Person of the Year. That is public information. Morgan Vague was never nominated. She does not even meet the criteria.

Greta is an awful human @DrWatson