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Science In Action: Plastic Eating Bacteria

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Plastic Eating Bacteria

10/03/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Plastic Eating Bacteria

Could plastic eating bacteria eat away at the millions of tonnes of plastic waste?

Plastic eating bacteria; Appalling Mongolian air pollution; Senegal science meeting; Slithering snakes; Exomars to launch.

About 311 million tonnes of plastics are produced every year and 90% of these are derived from petrol. Most of this is used for packaging and only about 14% is recycled. As the plastics are made to be durable and stable, they remain as waste in the environment. The effect from plastic waste on microbes, fishes, birds etc is huge, not to mention unsightly for humans. A solution would be to produce plastics that are degradable from renewable resources. This now maybe possible thanks to a discovery by a team of Japanese scientists who have found a bacterium that can fully degrade a widely used plastic. Professor Uwe Bornscheuer from the University of Greifswald explains why this finding is so significant.

Air Pollution in Ulan Bator
Fast growing cities like Beijing, New Delhi and Ulan Bator suffer from increasing air pollution. The smog often clouds the air and causes health problems. Ulan Bator faces a special challenge because the winters are exceptionally cold. Many people in Mongolia’s capital city live in traditional yurts that are heated with coal fires. Temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius keep the smoke from the fires from dispersing. Dr Purevdorj Olkhanud, from the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, travels back and forth between the US and Mongolia, where he gathers data on air quality in Ulan Bator to improve the public health situation.

Senegal Science Meeting
The Next Einstein Forum is underway in Senegal, aiming to encourage more women into science across Africa. Julian Siddle reports from Dakar.

Slithering Snakes
For the first time scientists in the US have monitored how snakes move. They have found that they have a specific stereotyped waveform movement across sand. Johnathan Webb has been to investigate.

Exomars to Launch
Europe and Russia are going back to Mars. Final preparations are underway for the ExoMars launch on Monday from Baikonur. Jonathan Amos speaks to Exomars project Scientist Dr. Jorge Vago about the mission.

(Photo: Serbian amateur ecologist Srboljub Pesic examining the South Morava river filled with discarded plastic bottles and other garbage, near the town of Vranje.© Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)

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