Silk-Making Bacteria, Deep Coral, CRISPR Agriculture

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, you’ll learn about a bacteria that turns plastic into spider webs, a massive deep-sea discovery right in our own backyard, and how CRISPR could reshape agriculture for an entire continent.

Silk-Making Bacteria

“Researchers Engineer Bacteria That Eat Plastic, Make Multipurpose Spider Silk.” Technology Networks. 2024.
“Two-step conversion of polyethylene into recombinant proteins using a microbial platform.” by Alexander Connor, et al. 2023.
“Our planet is choking on plastic.” UNEP. n.d.
“In Images: Plastic is Forever.” UN. n.d.

Deep Coral

“World’s largest deep-sea coral reef found lurking beneath the Gulf Stream ‘right on the doorstep’ of US coast.” by Harry Baker. 2024.
“Status of Coral Reefs.” Reef Resilience Network. N.d.
“Life Below Water.” UN. 2020.

CRISPR Agriculture

“CRISPR-edited crops break new ground in Africa.” by Heidi Ledford. 2024.
“Witchweed.” USDA. n.d.
“Africa’s agricultural revolution: From self-sufficiency to global food powerhouse.” By Gareth Hodder & Brenda Migwalla. 2023.
“GMOs or non-GMOs? The CRISPR Conundrum.” By Aftab Ahmad, et al. 2023.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff.
0:11.0	I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping in for the first time,
0:13.6	welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you're
0:17.6	loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about a bacteria that turns
0:21.2	plastic into spider webs, a massive deep sea discovery right in
0:25.6	our own backyard, and how CRISPR could reshape agriculture for an entire continent.
0:31.3	Without further I do, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:34.0	The world is drowning in plastic.
0:36.0	By some estimates, over 30 billion tons of plastic waste finds its way into the oceans every
0:40.8	single year.
0:41.8	That's kind of mind-blowing, especially if you think about that's just the plastic that
0:46.3	ends up in the ocean.
0:48.3	We've talked about it a ton because this is one of those planet-sized problems that scientists do love to try and solve.
0:54.4	Oh, absolutely. The problem is so dramatic that it said plastic will eventually show up in our
0:58.8	fossil record. It's in our water, our soil, our plants, our food, our animals, our bodies.
1:03.6	It's basically everywhere.
1:05.4	And yeah, science is desperate to solve this problem, but there are a lot of challenges.
1:09.6	The fact is, polymer chains that connect to create water bottles and other single use items take a
1:14.3	thousand years or more to break down.
1:16.6	And even then you can still find microplastics covering everything.
	...

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