Bacteria that glows in dark can help detect microplastics
A team of researchers has come up with a cool new way to find microplastics in the environment—they've engineered a non-infectious laboratory strain of bacteria that produces a green fluorescent signal when microplastics are present.
This makes detecting these tiny pollutants way faster and cheaper than older, complicated methods.
Microplastics, which are smaller than 5mm, have become a big problem for both humans and wildlife, showing up in our food, water, and even the air.
Could help quickly spot pollution hotspots
The biosensor was able to pick up even small amounts of microplastics in seawater samples—up to 100 parts per million.
Lead author Song Lin Chua says this could help quickly spot pollution hotspots and make large-scale monitoring much easier.
With millions of tons of microplastics entering nature every year (and numbers expected to rise by 2040), this breakthrough could be an important step toward protecting our planet.