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The Plague that is Plastic Pollution
Summary
A researcher engineered algae to carry genes for plastic-degrading enzymes, and early tests showed the algae grew well and successfully took up the new DNA — an encouraging first step toward a living, low-cost tool that could help break down plastic waste in nature. This matters because plastic pollution doesn't just harm wildlife and ecosystems — it breaks down into microplastics that contaminate our food and water, so finding natural ways to clean it up could reduce our long-term exposure. That said, this is early-stage lab work, and scaling it up to actually clean real-world environments is still a future goal, not a proven solution yet.
There are many pollutants that plague the world we live in today, and plastic pollution is one of them. Plastic persists in the environment for centuries, damaging ecosystems, contaminating food and water, and damaging ecosystems and wildlife. My goal with this project is to create a strain of algae that makes enzymes that degrade plastic. To achieve this goal, I introduced DNA to algae, selected and screened clones for DNA and protein, and tested their ability to degrade plastic. My efforts in this research yielded a positive DNA result and good green growth for my algae sample. If replicated in large quantities, an introduction of plastic degrading algae to the natural environment could serve as a cost-effective environmental cleanup strategy and contribute to nature's fight against plastic pollution.