Translator: Sebastian Fuentes Medina Reviewer: Didar Omar
One of the many legends we have as a country
talks about the state of nature before the arrival of mankind.
It talks about an indescribable beauty, that could be found everywhere
and of the perfect equilibrium that reigned among living beings.
By then, mankind arrived with its selfishness, with its greediness
and that equilibrium was lost
and nature lost its voice.
The curious and sad thing about this story
is that similar stories can be found
in different cultures around the world.
And the tragic thing is that they are no longer stories or legends or myths,
but a description of our reality,
of what we as a species have done to the planet.
Unfortunately, not even evident consequences
of our mark on Earth,
such as climate change, or pollution,
are enough so that as a species we open up our eyes.
Of course, nobody likes generalizations,
because they are not fair to those people
who do contribute positively, with notable exceptions.
There are people who try fervently
to listen to nature’s whisper,
because in fact, it is still there
and it tells us that there are ways
of turning back the damage we have made.
When we think about solving problems by applying knowledge,
surely all of us are tempted
to approach the subject from our own upbringing.
It’s something perfectly natural.
But when you want to solve problems either really big or complex, or both,
such as the ones we are currently facing,
this may not be enough.
Never before in human history we have needed so much
to work together contributing our own perspectives.
with this philosophy in mind
that those truly innovative ideas can become reality.
I’m a training engineer,
but that has not prevented I seek to learn from people
with different education from mine.
Actually, doing so has allowed me to open up my eyes
in ways I never believed possible
and at the same time has allowed me to get involved with really interesting projects.
One of this projects rises
from one of the whispers of nature which I have spoken to you about.
What we are looking for is trying to use extremely special microorganisms.
Surely, mi biologist or biochemist friends can define
what microorganisms are better than me.
Beyond telling you
that they are extremely small beings, which do thousands of things in nature,
I could not tell you how or why they do it.
That’s why I will define it with the words of an engineer.
Microorganisms are very small, but incredibly complex machines.
These machines have the main function of transforming
And about this, dozens of examples can be given,
and surely all of you have been able to observe or experiment with.
When we start our day, we all need to eat breakfast
if we want to have energy, right?
It could be yogurt, bread, cheese, all of it is obtained through microorganisms.
When our health weakens and we need to resort to medications,
be careful! not necessarily antibiotics,
many of these are obtained through the adequate use of microorganisms.
Even the air that we breathe has much of its origin
on microorganisms that can be found in the ocean.
As you can see, our world and how it works,
has a lot to do with microorganisms.
That is why it’s so important to understand its potential,
since it’s not limited to the examples I have given you.
Through microorganisms we can even obtain fuels
and even produce materials to replace those we already have.
Maybe you’re wondering,
why do we need to find replacements for products we already have?
What is wrong with our fuels or our materials?
Well, I already gave you the answer at the beginning.
It’s our obligation to find substitutes to our conventional products,
because we humans have worn out the planet
in our eagerness to satisfy our needs,
without thinking about the long-term consequences,
we have broadened our agricultural border for our crops.
This, in general, at the price of destroying entire ecosystems.
Did you know that just in 2019 we lost
12 million acres of forest in the world?
If this number does not tell you anything, just imagine
that this is the equivalent of igniting
a forest the size of a football field
every two seconds for an entire year.
It’s truly brutal, right?
We have used our natural resources
without any kind of sustainability.
And the processes used to obtain fuel or plastics
have a tremendous negative effect on the environment.
A plastic bottle may not seem to bad when we purchase it.
But imagine that same action
being repeated thousands of times around the world.
In fact, it is estimated that we purchase
one million plastic bottles each minute;
more than half, will accompany us
through hundreds of years once they are thrown out.
It doesn’t seem so harmless, does it?
Many experts across different areas are in agreement
that we have taken the planet very close to the point of no return.
If that doesn’t mean anything to you, imagine a world
in which thanks to climate change, we have melted all of our glaciers.
And the main consequence of that,
entire cities have disappeared underwater,
due to the dramatic rise in sea levels.
London, Amsterdam, Venice...
have just become a memory.
Knowing all this, how is it possible that we don’t look for solutions?
All of this takes us back to microorganisms
and their role in our future.
I have talked about everything we have thanks to microorganisms,
but I have not talked about how incredibly versatile they are.
Practically anywhere on Earth
that we can think of, we can find them.
someone asks me if we can find microorganisms
on ice or in polar regions.
The answer is yes.
people ask me if we can find microorganisms
in thermal waters or in places with volcanic activity.
The answer is still yes.
people ask me if we can even find microorganisms
in places where we have made life difficult,
such as places with radioactive waste or mining activity.
Incredibly, the answer is still yes.
Let’s see another example of this kind of versatility,
but which is closer to us.
At least if you do live in Bolivia.
this is a picture of Salar de Uyuni, which is the largest salt pan in the world.
Beyond the potential it holds due to its inorganic resources,
it’s known for being a popular tourist destination.
How could it not be so?
Just looking at those pictures
we can get an idea of what mystical and beautiful is this place.
Although I’d like to continue helping to promote well-deserved tourism
to this wonderful destination.
Now, let’s talk about something also interesting,
which are the microorganisms that we can find here.
Besides having a unique landscape,
the salt pan is characterized by having environmental conditions,
that are highly aggressive for the microorganisms.
However, people have had the opportunity to be in the salt pan,
you could observe that if we are properly qualified,
it is hard to stay there.
I thank all the people who does this observation,
because they give me the chance to show something that I’ve always fascinated,
which is to explain the natural events through analogies.
Imagine that this person is you.
Or better still, imagine that it’s about your best friend.
Plainly, it’s a fantastic moment in his life.
He has realized his dream of visiting one of the most fascinating places
that our planet has and his training
somehow is qualified for that.
He has special clothes and boots, glasses for protecting his eyes
and even he is using too much suncream.
With those precautions, it isn’t easy to imagine
how aggressive is the salt pan for the development of life.
To give us an idea.
Let’s make our friend much smaller
and just for analogy purposes, let’s leave him naked.
Now, we ask ourselves again,
What effects would it have on him the environmental conditions of the salt pan?
Let’s see a little bit closer.
Surely you have noticed that
I haven’t left my friend completely naked
But, for the analogy, we can leave him with his underwear.
as we can observe, he doesn’t look so glad of being in the salt pan
Now that he doesn’t have adequate protection, right?
In the salt pan, solar radiation is noticeably denser,
which has as consequence really bad burns,
If we are not duly protected.
In addition, due to his current microscopic size,
our friend loses body mass much more easily.
This fact, in any kind of life, it’s very dangerous.
With both problems,
it wouldn’t be long before our friend ceases to exist.
And with the microorganisms something very similar happens,
when they don’t have the means to protect themselves,
as in the case of our disappeared friend, it was his clothing.
But, what would happen if a microorganism evolved to such an extent
of developing strategies that allow it to survive in those conditions?
Again, let’s look at him closer.
There are, in fact, microorganisms isolated in Salar de Uyuni,
in which they have observed these kinds of adaptations
It’s not exactly clothes, boots, or glasses,
of what the microorganisms have,
but it’s still something practical and effective.
They produce polymers that solve the two biggest problems,
that have caused the disappearance of our friend.
They protect them from the intense ultraviolet radiation.
and, at the same time, they prevent them from losing water.
That’s amazing, right?
As good curious we are,
of course, we couldn’t stop at this point.
So, naturally, we have tried to learn more
about these polymers produced by microorganisms.
We have to mention that there is a huge variety
and it’s really huge the number of different applications
that can be given such as: The food industry, pharmaceutical,
even to produce bioplastics.
Those perspectives are very broad for these biopolymers.
Someone may wonder if it wasn’t known before
about these biopolymers.
And of course, it is a valid question.
The biopolymers, in fact, are known for a long time.
Hence, the following logical question arises:
If they are known for a long time
why plastics haven’t still been replaced? For instance.
There are many factors that have avoided biopolymers
becoming such an expected response to plastics.
As the yields with which they are produced
or how to extract and purify them.
However, perhaps the most important is the economic factor.
We must still learn to produce bioplastics
in a sustainable and feasible way.
And precisely with these excellent couple of questions in mind,
that we have looked for adequate answers
and we have found some answers related to the idea of using other natural resources.
Understanding a microorganism it’s about knowing what you prefer to eat.
Yes, just as you hear it.
Microorganisms as well as people,
have preference for certain kinds of food,
which are technically named substrates.
And that affects how they grow in certain environments
and in certain conditions.
A cheap way to provide them food,
that eventually they become in precious biopolymers,
is to use agricultural waste which has been treated for that purpose.
At least in a local way, we use quinoa stems for that,
as Bolivia is the second largest worldwide producer,
which means that we have a lot of that
and eventually, it’s not used in an efficient way.
And what did we find?
That to our microorganism, in fact, it does like to eat quinoa
or at least stems, once they have been conditioned.
Once we have all the components of an idea identified,
If we want it to become a project, we must know how to integrate them.
Here’s another analogy.
There is a puzzle game which is called tangram.
I have always loved this game,
because with exactly the same seven pieces
we can have results completely different from each other.
And it is precisely about this on what it is based
to make an idea transcend in the society,
and also to imagine how to fit the different components
in a way that the final product is something that we know will cause impact.
In our case, briefly,
we are clear about where we are aiming.
Using agricultural waste from resources extremely abundant in Bolivia,
we produce biopolymers, through these wonderful micromachines,
which are microorganisms.
These biopolymers have dozens of potential applications, including,
something as big as becoming substitutes for plastics.
I have mentioned at a certain moment,
that different experts in other areas agreed
that we had carried to the planet very close to the point of no return.
I hope I have been able to convey I am that person who believes
that through big ideas that work as a base for large projects,
and working all together,
we can realize that the damage caused to the planet
it had not been so irreversible,
after all.