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posted by
Fnord666
on Wednesday April 26 2017, @01:21AM
from the butterflies-with-plastic-wings dept.
from the butterflies-with-plastic-wings dept.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39694553
Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered that the larvae of the moth, which eats wax in bee hives, can also degrade plastic.
Experiments show the insect can break down the chemical bonds of plastic in a similar way to digesting beeswax.
[...] caterpillars of the moth (Galleria mellonella) can make holes in a plastic bag in under an hour.
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30231-2
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Plastic-Eating Caterpillars Can Degrade Polyethylene
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* m2 stares at the monitor... it looks like a hamburger...
m2 - that's a bad sign
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @07:52AM
Dr Bombelli and colleague Federica Bertocchini of the Spanish National Research Council have patented the discovery.
After reading the same thing yesterday (and the research paper) I went looking if people are growing these worms for some reason... apparently they are grown as food for reptiles and birds. There were even methods described culturing them... including comments on NOT using "thin walled plastic containers", as they eat through them. I wonder if this patent will really hold in court, due to this prior art (and novelty of their "invention").