Latest news with #WitthayaPrasongsin
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
These Superpowered Bacteria Were Made to Tackle Industrial Contamination
Bacteria are nature's cleanup crew. They play a vital role in breaking down a broad range of organic contaminants, from fallen leaves and animal waste to natural sulfur and petroleum seeps. But the dawn of the Industrial Age put this framework in a jar and shook it, creating chaos: Not only are some manufacturing pollutants outside of many strains' normal processing range, but humans are dumping large quantities of contaminants into the natural environment faster than bacteria can deal with them. In an effort to help the planet bioremediate industrial waste, researchers have generally engineered Vibrio natriegens to tackle several organic pollutants. A Gram-negative marine bacterium, V. natriegens is a salt-tolerant organism with a flexible metabolism that allows it to consume carbon, carbohydrates, alcohols, acids, and more. Its hardiness makes it a desirable target for environmentally focused bacterial genetic engineering—hence a project out of North Carolina State University that gave V. natriegens the ability to break down common plastics last year. In China, researchers explored which clusters of DNA helped single-celled organisms break down contaminants like benzene (a flammable solvent now known to be a carcinogen) and phenol (a crystalline solid that can cause chemical burns but is used to create nylon, pain relief medications, and cosmetic treatments). They found that, when exposed to molecules that could be consumed, these clusters conveniently triggered the production of multiple enzymes capable of tackling that molecule. Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin/Moment via Getty Images The team ordered the DNA behind nine of the contaminant-busting protein clusters. After separating the DNA from its yeast, they inserted each type into a different V. natriegens bacterium, then placed each engineered V. natriegens in a solution with the pollutant they had been designed to bioremediate. Five of the nine edited V. natriegens worked, resulting in bacteria that could break down biphenyl, dibenzofuran, napthalene, phenol, and toluene. From there, it was time to test the engineered bacteria in real wastewater. The team gathered samples from a chlor–alkali plant and a petroleum refinery. In those samples—and in nearby soil—the bacteria were 95% effective at tackling biphenyl, dibenzofuran, napthalene, and toluene and 80% effective at eliminating phenol. The study appeared May 7 in the journal Nature. While encouraging, the engineered bacteria are far from resolving industrial pollution on their own. Not only are their "appetites" limited, but they have no way of eating the (slightly less environmentally harmful) byproducts they produce by breaking down the above contaminants. There's also the question of what downstream effects might result from unleashing engineered bacteria on natural ecosystems. As such, these superpowered bacteria might be a win for science, but ending industrial pollution altogether is another story.
Buzz Feed
26-04-2025
- Health
- Buzz Feed
17 Brutally Honest Confessions From A Woman Who Got All Her Vaccinations At 18 After Being Raised By Anti-Vax Parents
Currently, the CDC recommends that children be vaccinated against potentially harmful diseases ranging from measles and tetanus to hepatitis and polio. However, vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise since COVID, and once fringe beliefs, like thinking vaccines cause autism (they don't), are becoming more mainstream. Recently, on Reddit, a woman who grew up in an anti-vax family posted an AMA, inviting users to ask her anything about her experience, and it was a really fascinating conversation. She started the thread by writing, "I was raised by hippie-dippy parents in Oregon. No vaccines, was born at home, homeschooled for 16 years, etc. I have since received all of my vaccinations." Here are some of the most interesting questions and answers: 1. Q: When did your beliefs start to differ from your parents and why? How did they react? Atlantic-kid / Getty Images 2. Q: So you learned you were unvaccinated at 18? A: I started to grasp the concept when I was around 14, when we went to a new pediatrician, and the doctor asked for Gardasil. My mom mentioned that I had not been vaccinated at all. 3. Q: So at what point between 14 and 18 did you start to disagree with your parents' views? What led to you thinking differently? Witthaya Prasongsin / Getty Images A: I didn't really have an opinion until I started getting registered at my college, and I had to do all these crazy forms for vaccine exemptions. I took a biology course during my first semester of freshman year, and that motivated me to seek out vaccinations in addition to just being lazy and annoyed. 4. Q: Seems like the biggest annoyance to you of not being vaccinated is filling out paperwork. I understand that vaccination exemptions are inconvenient, but if it weren't for that, does it actually bother you? A: Yes, it does. After working in a nursing home where I have had residents deal with polio paralysis and cephalopathy from measles and sepsis from a shingles infection. I can certainly say that it does bother me that my parents made that decision. 5. Q: Did you get all your vaccines at once, or did you space them out? How did you feel physically after getting the polio vaccine? Aleksandr Zubkov / Getty Images A: They were all spaced out. I don't remember how I felt after a certain vaccine because I got them done during a time when I was heavily using cannabis. It definitely altered my memory, but I don't ever remember having a bad reaction to any of them. 7. Q: After your biology class, whats your opinion on the preservatives, stabilizers, and other ingredients used in vaccines? Brightstars / Getty Images A: There are preservatives in literally every product we use on the market, like citric acid in food and phenoxyethanol in beauty products. Vaccines are such a small exposure, I'm not afraid of them. 8. Q: Do you wish you were vaccinated when you were younger, or are you okay with the choice your parents made? A: I wish I was because then I wouldn't have wasted so much time, like hours, filling out exemption forms for my college. I also don't appreciate the fact that I was in pain and remembered the pain from getting vaccinations. I still am icked out by needles even though I'm a nurse. 9. Q: Do you feel your parents endangered your life at all? Iuliia Bondar / Getty Images A: Yes, in a way. I remember when we were younger we traveled to a country in the Caribbean and I don't know if it was my parents being racist or being scared, but they didn't let us play with the children in the village that we were visiting because they were paranoid that we would get whatever disease the children had. 11. Q: What's your relationship with your parents like now, and how do they feel about the way public health is going at present? Oliver Rossi / Getty Images A: We still talk. We are not very close. They are both socialist hippies. I don't really talk to them about politics or public health because they are not informed, and it's not my place to educate them. 12. Q: So did you catch a lot of diseases as a child? Or something you should have been vaccinated against? A: The only disease I remember catching is Chickenpox, which was so scary. My parents took me to a pox party. It was hell. I also got the flu a few times. 13. Q: I also wasn't vaccinated until I was 18. Have your parents changed their views at all over time? My mom recently apologized to me in light of the current measles outbreak. Dad is still extremely anti-vax. I work in public health now, so that makes Thanksgiving fun, lol. 14. Q: When you've tried to talk to them about it, what happens? A: The conversations about vaccines rarely come up. I have tried to talk to them about it once in regard to my younger siblings. However, they are pretty resistant. When the COVID-19 vaccine was rolling out, I tried to have a serious conversation with them about it, but it ended up in a big fight, which is not worth it to me. I think it's important to meet people where they're at and support them on their journey without being forceful because that can lead to more resistance. 15. Q: How well were you homeschooled? I have a friend who homeschools their children, but I presume doesn't actually do any kind of schooling. Katiuscia Noseda / Getty Images A: We honestly were schooled okay. My mom was a teacher before she became a SAHM. I decided to go to a public high school when I entered my junior year. Both of my parents have Master's degrees, so it was always expected of us to go to college. 16. Q: Did your family's social circle also consist of anti-vaxxers? If so, have their adult children made similar decisions to proceed with getting vaccinated, or have most stayed unvaccinated? A: Absolutely. We did a homeschooling co op. I don't really speak on that level with those people, so I genuinely don't know. 17. Q: Do you think there are effective ways to try to persuade parents who are worried about the effects of vaccines, or do they have to change their own minds? FluxFactory / Getty Images
