If one ingredient is slightly off, you re not going to get the result you want. Sometimes, though, adverse conditions help natural evolution. The survival of the fittest can do away with the need for any genetic tinkering. While DuPont s artificial silk studies are being carried out in the building where Wallace Carothers invented nylon, other DuPont bugs are not so lucky. A number of them, for example, live in the company s wastewater treatment bins.
Microbes feed on carbon.
To survive, they have to compete with others, which means constantly evolving new ways of processing carbon from whatever source they can find. DuPont s waste bins are full of carbon compounds, and the microbes in the bins have evolved certain enzymes in their metabolism to help keep one step ahead of the competition. Essentially, the microbes have become chemical factories that are permanently inventing new ways to do chemistry. Four years ago it occurred to some of DuPont s researchers that the bins might provide a rich source of unusual reactions. They were right.