Scientists surpassed the depths of the ocean and outer space in search of microbes to help slow global warming. Now they look at a new and unlikely place – inside your home.
A group called The Two Borders Project (2FP) – funded by Seal Health Biotechnology – from people in the United States to search for “strange microbial growth” at home, in a search to find the following microorganisms that can be absorbed Carbon dioxide (Carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere or helps decompose environmental pollutants.
Microbes Praaden Turney, CEO of 2FP, said that Extimophiles flourish in hostile environments and develop unique properties, which can be used by the biotechnology industry and used in climate solutions.
Although microbes live on all local surfaces, the group is especially interested in those who live in more extreme environments, including high temperature places such as dishwasher, air, microwave, solar panels, water heaters and shower.
“These environments, despite the common, are the tradition of the harsh conditions in nature,” said Terney CNN. “It reflects the environmental changes that our planet may face in the future – including increasing temperatures, increasing radiation and increasing acid acid and soil.”
The team hopes to discover microbes inside homes that may have the same traits of carbon absorption as found in nature.
In 2022, on the coast of the Italian island of Volcano, where carbon dioxide bubbles rise from volcanic resources in the sea bed, the 2FP team found new blue bacteria-a new water object capable of producing its own food, which they say, can absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into a large amount of efficiency.
The volunteers who have been registered in the “Extremophilic campaign” will be asked to take pictures of any microbial growth in their homes – “Think of mud, scales and threaded growth”, and asks the project site – and answers questions about what they see.
“Scientists,” Terney said. “Scientists are scientists in identifying areas of attention. If you want to explore something deeper, they will send a set of samples of the DNA sample to the volunteers to use and send it again. These results will be added to an open source database of extremist microbes.
“It is a very interesting alternative to reaching capabilities … it was not known yet,” said Wilfred Weber, the scientific director of the Lebnes Institute for New Materials in Germany, which did not participate in the study. “I think there is a very good opportunity to determine the new microbes,” he said. CNN.
The World Economic Forum launched the Carbon Microbial Capture Award as one of the most prominent emerging technologies in the June in the June report, but technology is still in childhood, as companies run experimental programs for commercial feasibility test.
Carbon capture – which includes a variety of technologies, remains a huge vacuum facilities capable of absorbing climate air pollution to the carbon sponge – controversial as a climate solution.
The United Nations International Governmental Painting at the United Nations stated that, in addition to significantly reducing fossil fuels, the world will also have to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide in the air to avoid increasingly disastrous climate change.
But critics warn that it is costly, not widespread and is used by the fossil fuel industry to continue extracting oil and gas, rather than change to cleaner energy forms such as wind and solar energy.
Weber said there are advantages in using microbes. While classic carbon capture usually aims to store CO2 underground, with microbes “you have the ability to convert carbon dioxide into high -value products such as refined chemicals, cosmetics and fuel”, which may help compensate for practical costs.
However, this method requires additional energy “like sunlight … or a type of chemical energy that can come from green hydrogen or organic waste.” “For this reason, these technologies are logical in places where this energy is available in a sustainable way.”
The potential uses of biotechnology extend microbes that exceed carbon capture, according to Tirni. He said that microbial species, such as those in the dishwasher, are able to resist high levels of detergents and salt “can be used for environmental cleaning under opposite conditions, such as removing heavy metals or oil from polluted places.”
He added that the thermal can be used, such as those in the microwave, which can escape the intense heat, to study climate change adaptation and even create clean energy sources such as hydrogen, which usually require high temperatures for production. “
Microbes “is a powerful tool in specific contexts, but it is just part of the larger solution.”N. “The urgency of the climate crisis means that we must explore all possible methods.”
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