Scientists have rummaged through the depths of the ocean and outer space in search of microbes to help slow down global warming. Now they are looking at a new and unlikely place – inside your house.
A group called the Two Borders Project (2FP) – funded by the Seed Health Biotechnology company – is asking people in the United States to look for “strange microbial growth” at home, in a search to find the next microorganism that can suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or help decompose environmental pollutants.
Extreremophilic microbes prosper in hostile environments and develop unique properties, which can be used by the biotechnology industry and used in climate solutions, said Braden Tierney, executive director of 2FP.
Although microbes live on all domestic surfaces, the group is especially interested in those who live in more extreme environments, including places with high temperatures such as dishwasher, air conditioned, microwave, solar panels, water heaters and showers.
“These environments, although common, imitate the extreme conditions found in nature,” Tierney told CNN . “They reflect the environmental changes that our planet may face in the future – including increasing temperatures, increasing radiation and increasing acid and soil acidification.”
The team hopes to discover microbes within homes that may have the same carbon absorption qualities as some found in nature.
In 2022, on the coast of the Italian island of Vulcano, where carbon dioxide bubbles rise from volcanic sources in the sea bed, a 2FP team found a new cyanobacteria-an aquatic organism capable of producing its own food-which, they say, can absorb CO2 and turn it into great efficiency biomass.
Volunteers who are signed up for the “extremophilic campaign” will be asked to take pictures of any microbial growth in their homes – “Think of slime, crusts, filamentous growth”, asks the project website – and answer questions about what they see.
“Colors, odors, unusual textures and other data” can help scientists identify areas of interest, said Tierney. If you want to explore something deeper, they will send a DNA sample collection kit for volunteers to use and send back. These results will be added to an open source database of extremophilic microbes.
“It is a very interesting alternative to gain access to capabilities … that are not yet known,” said Wilfried Weber, scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for new materials in Germany, which is not involved in the study. “I think there is a very good chance that new microbes are identified,” he told CNN .
The World Economic Forum has named the carbon microbial capture as one of the world’s leading emerging technologies in a June report, but technology is still in its childhood, with companies running pilot programs to test commercial viability.
Carbon capture – which includes a variety of technologies, from huge vacuum installations capable of sucking climate air pollution to carbon absorbent sponges – remains controversial as a climate solution.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on UN has stated that, in addition to drastically reducing fossil fuels, the world will also have to remove large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere to avoid increasingly catastrophic climate change.
But critics warn that it is expensive, not proven on a large scale and is being used by the fossil fuel industry to continue extracting oil and gas, rather than changing to cleaner energy forms such as wind and solar.
There are advantages in using microbes, said Weber. While classic carbon capture usually aims to store CO2 underground, with microbes “you have the potential to convert CO2 into high value products such as refined chemicals, cosmetics, fuel”, which could help offset process costs, he said.
Still, this method requires additional energy “like sunlight… or some kind of chemical energy that could come from green hydrogen or organic waste flows,” he added. “That’s why these technologies make sense in places where this energy is available in a sustainable way.”
Potential uses of biotechnology extremophilic microbes extend beyond carbon capture, according to Tierney. Microbial species, such as those found in dishwasher, capable of resisting high levels of detergent and salt, “could be used for environmental cleaning under adverse conditions, such as the removal of heavy metals or oil from polluted places,” he said.
Thermophiles, such as those found in microwave, which can survive extreme heat, could “be used to study climate change adaptation and even create clean energy sources such as hydrogen, which usually requires high temperatures for production,” he added.
Microbes “are a powerful tool in specific contexts, but they are just part of the larger solution,” Ara Katz, Co-CEO of Seed Health, told CNN . “The urgency of the climate crisis means that we should explore all possible approaches.”
See also: Belém prepares to receive 50 thousand visitors at COP30
This content was originally published in mud on the dishwasher can reveal a solution for global warming on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
