How much oil can one pound of human hair absorb when used in
Chapter 1

Microscopic monsters that munch on our trash

Chapter 2

Sucking carbon from the sky

Chapter 3

Sweeping the oceans clean

Chapter 4

Microscopic shields and magnetic dust

YOUR GOAL

Master of How to wash a planet with futuristic tech

Ch 1 · Microscopic monsters that munch on our trash
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007skaty Fungi that use toxic radiation as an energy source at Chernobyl

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007skaty Plastic-Eating Bacteria

In Sakai, a tiny microbe eats the plastic in our trash, Using enzymes to dissolve it in a sudden flash!

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Life adapts to find sustenance in our most toxic legacies.

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007skaty A bacterium discovered in Sakai eats plastic waste.

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Hair booms soaking up oil spills

007skaty Founded in 1998, San Francisco nonprofit Matter of Trust crafts biodegradable hair and fur mats to replace synthetic

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Fungi that swallow radiation at Chernobyl

007skaty Color-coded vector diagrams illustrate dark fungi absorbing radiation inside the Chernobyl reactor.

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Tiny Trash Chompers
BETA

007skaty Steer microscopic chompers to discover how new technologies clean up ocean plastic.

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Fun Fact

Plastic-munching bugs: A bacterium discovered in Japan in 2016 can digest a plastic bottle in six weeks using two specialized enzymes.

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Glossary
bioremediation (noun)
The use of biological organisms to remove or neutralize environmental pollutants from a contaminated area. In 2016, Japanese researchers discovered a plastic-eating bacterium at a recycling facility in Sakai.

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Gossip

Which bio-cleanup hero would you fund?

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Quiz

Which type of plastic is specifically broken down by the enzymes of the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis?

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007skaty Plants that extract toxic heavy metals from polluted industrial soil.

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Quiz

What is the name of the San Francisco-based nonprofit that creates oil-absorbing mats from donated hair?

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Quiz

What do scientists call plants like Alyssum murale that can absorb unusually high amounts of metals?

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Quiz

Which substance does the Chernobyl fungus Cryptococcus neoformans use to convert radiation into energy?

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Quiz

In what year did researchers first discover the radiotrophic fungi growing inside the ruined Chernobyl reactor?

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Quiz

What is the name of the plastic-eating bacterium discovered in Sakai, Japan, in 2016?

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Quiz

What is the scientific term for using plants to clean up heavy metals from polluted soil?

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Quiz

How much oil can one pound of human hair absorb when used in oil-spill cleanup mats?

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