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Podcast: レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast
Episode: How plastic-eating worms could be solution to Southeast Asia’s waste problem
Description: Scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) think mass-producing ‘superworm’ guts may be a nature-based solution to Southeast Asia’s plastic waste problem.
They are studying the creatures to work out exactly how they digest plastic. They already know that the creatures' gut biomes break down the waste on a molecular level and that they can be altered to degrade plastic even more effectively.
Now they want to work out how this natural mechanism can be harnessed on an industrial scale.
Previous studies show these nutritious ‘superworms’–the larvae of the darkling beetle, scientifically known as Zophobas atratus–have bacteria in thei...