Q1.
What are the other problems which you think can be solved with the help of microorganisms?
Answer
Wherever something has to be broken down, cleaned up or built from waste, a microorganism is a possible answer. Chakrabarty's bacterium of 1971 broke down oil spills; the same idea can be turned on many other problems.
- Household and city waste. Kitchen waste, vegetable peels and fallen leaves can be composted into manure instead of being dumped or burnt — as you did in Activity 2.7.
- Sewage and wastewater. Bacteria that live in oxygen-free conditions can decompose the waste in household wastewater and give biogas at the same time — the waste is cleaned and a fuel is produced from the same process.
- Dependence on chemical fertilisers. Growing legumes in rotation lets Rhizobium in the root nodules trap nitrogen from the air, raising the nitrogen in the soil naturally.
- Dirty water bodies. Microalgae help in cleaning water, and are also used to make biofuel.
- Poor nutrition and livelihood. Spirulina is rich in protein — more than 60 per cent of its body weight — and a good source of vitamin B12. Farming it in a glass tank is becoming a feasible livelihood opportunity, so conserving microalgae supports both food security and income.
- Animal waste on farms. Helpful bacteria can decompose dung, turning a disposal problem into manure and biogas.
Why microbes are so useful here: a microorganism does not need to be told what to do — it is simply feeding. Give it the waste as food and the warmth, air and moisture it needs, and the breaking-down happens by itself, without machinery. That is why Chakrabarty's work is remembered as showing how microorganisms could be used to solve environmental problems like pollution.
Did you know? Chakrabarty's discovery received a patent in 1980. A patent is a copyright given to a person so that no one else can copy, use or sell his or her invention without permission.