Authored By: Scientists in China have just created a new technology to rid the world of toxic waste. Lethal hydrocarbons can linger for years at industrial sites, but they're extremely difficult and very expensive to clean up.
But now, researchers at the Beijing Normal University have discovered that certain enzymes in a bacterium called Bacillus cereus DQ01 can actually be trained to eat the harmful waste. All the enzymes leave behind are water and non-toxic residue.
The researchers fed the enzymes a diet of sugar and hydrocarbons, then slowly reduced the amount of sugar until the enzymes learned to eat only hydrocarbons.
The result is a microbe with a ravenous appetite for pollution. This approach will soon be used to clean up oil spills and toxic waste sites.
This program first published September 2009
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