SALAM, GUYS

Welcome! Gal is a 23-year-old Malaysian physiotherapy student, with a head of probably a 17-year-old's likes, loves, and interests, and this here's an all-sorts-of-things-blog, from personal posts to fandom reblogs (foreword of warning: MULTIPLE AND SECONDHAND FANDOMS, and when I'm in a hurrying mood, I tend to leave posts untagged), but you can generally deduce that I pretty much love the following:

ISLAM, ANIME, MANGA, READING, WRITING, DRAWING, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, MOTIVATIONAL POSTS, HARRY POTTER (BOOK AND MOVIE VERSIONS), SHERLOCK HOLMES (SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S, BBC AND MOVIE VERSIONS), LEGEND OF KORRA, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, THE HOBBIT (MOVIE VERSION), GAME OF THRONES (TV VERSION, KUROSHITSUJI, FINAL FANTASY, KINGDOM HEARTS, DRAGON BALL/Z/GT, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, SCORPIONS...

List is actually endless, so feel free to follow or message if you'd like to share with me something, or just derp together. Enjoy!

stellanacht
malaysian with an awkward head
starcrossed-sky: realcleverscience: sustainable-sam: shortformblog: Fun guy chillin’ in South American rainforest finds plastic-eating fungi Seriously, though this is kind of a big deal. Know that big problem we have? You know, the one involving a crapload of used plastic hanging around in landfills with nowhere to biodegrade for a couple million years? Well, Jonathan Russell might’ve solved that problem. See, Russell and his fellow Yale students went to Ecuador, where they found a new kind of fungus they’re calling Pestalotiopsis microspora. Big deal, you’re thinking. Anyone can find fungus anywhere! Well, something his fellow students found out after the fact is that this fungus can live on a diet of polyurethane alone — and even crazier, it doesn’t even need air to do so! In other words, we could potentially put it at the bottom of a landfill and cover it with plastic, and it would do the rest of the work. This might be game-changing if it works as advertised. (photo via Flickr user dbutt; EDIT: Updated with link to research abstract) source Follow ShortFormBlog So amazing! The only thing I worry about when these kinds of discoveries are made is that people will abuse it. Which is of course what usually happens. They see this and think, hey I’m all right with using plastic. But I’m just being negative, and progress in getting rid of all the waste we already have is a HUGE positive.  This is HUGE news. I’m waiting to hear more about it, but this could be a potential game-changer for much of our plastic-pollution problem. However, it’s not the end of the story. It may not work for many types of plastic (though perhaps we could engineer strands which would), it still needs to be assessed for its safety, we don’t want to encourage increased plastic use (as Sam noted), much of the plastic may still be sent into the oceans and other places where the fungi can’t access it but where it poisons the wildlife (and eventually gets into us, don’t forget!). In short, there’s still much to look into, but this could still prove an amazing boon in our society’s struggle to become sustainable and hopefully repair some of the excessive damage we have done to our environment, flora, and fauna. Very exciting stuff! (Gizmodo link here.) Also, you know how environmentalists are always saying that there are valuable species in the rainforest and that losing biodiversity is a loss to the whole world? Well, this is a good example of just that - some random species with an amazing ability we might have otherwise bulldozed over. Keep it in mind next time you hear someone talking about the rainforest or biodiversity. HOLY SHIT EXCELLENT SCIENCE YES Sounds promising. If this indeed turn out to be the Rosetta Stone that we all need to turn things back the way they were - little number of dumping grounds for excessive plastics, more greenery in the form of organic plants and life forms, reversal of carbon dioxide accumulation (read: global warming) in the atmosphere, etc. - then perhaps there’s redemption for us all :D. I hope they’ll investigate further into this, who knows?

starcrossed-sky:

realcleverscience:

sustainable-sam:

shortformblog:

Fun guy chillin’ in South American rainforest finds plastic-eating fungi

Seriously, though this is kind of a big deal. Know that big problem we have? You know, the one involving a crapload of used plastic hanging around in landfills with nowhere to biodegrade for a couple million years? Well, Jonathan Russell might’ve solved that problem. See, Russell and his fellow Yale students went to Ecuador, where they found a new kind of fungus they’re calling Pestalotiopsis microspora. Big deal, you’re thinking. Anyone can find fungus anywhere! Well, something his fellow students found out after the fact is that this fungus can live on a diet of polyurethane alone — and even crazier, it doesn’t even need air to do so! In other words, we could potentially put it at the bottom of a landfill and cover it with plastic, and it would do the rest of the work. This might be game-changing if it works as advertised. (photo via Flickr user dbutt; EDIT: Updated with link to research abstract) source

Follow ShortFormBlog

So amazing! The only thing I worry about when these kinds of discoveries are made is that people will abuse it. Which is of course what usually happens. They see this and think, hey I’m all right with using plastic. But I’m just being negative, and progress in getting rid of all the waste we already have is a HUGE positive. 

This is HUGE news. I’m waiting to hear more about it, but this could be a potential game-changer for much of our plastic-pollution problem. However, it’s not the end of the story. It may not work for many types of plastic (though perhaps we could engineer strands which would), it still needs to be assessed for its safety, we don’t want to encourage increased plastic use (as Sam noted), much of the plastic may still be sent into the oceans and other places where the fungi can’t access it but where it poisons the wildlife (and eventually gets into us, don’t forget!). In short, there’s still much to look into, but this could still prove an amazing boon in our society’s struggle to become sustainable and hopefully repair some of the excessive damage we have done to our environment, flora, and fauna. Very exciting stuff! (Gizmodo link here.)

Also, you know how environmentalists are always saying that there are valuable species in the rainforest and that losing biodiversity is a loss to the whole world? Well, this is a good example of just that - some random species with an amazing ability we might have otherwise bulldozed over. Keep it in mind next time you hear someone talking about the rainforest or biodiversity.

HOLY SHIT EXCELLENT SCIENCE YES

Sounds promising. If this indeed turn out to be the Rosetta Stone that we all need to turn things back the way they were - little number of dumping grounds for excessive plastics, more greenery in the form of organic plants and life forms, reversal of carbon dioxide accumulation (read: global warming) in the atmosphere, etc. - then perhaps there’s redemption for us all :D. I hope they’ll investigate further into this, who knows?

(Source: shortformblog)