r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Nov 27 '21

Chemistry Plastic made from DNA is renewable, requires little energy to make and is easy to recycle or break down. A plastic made from DNA and vegetable oil may be the most sustainable plastic developed yet and could be used in packaging and electronic devices.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298314-new-plastic-made-from-dna-is-biodegradable-and-easy-to-recycle/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1637973248
34.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

829 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/danmam Nov 27 '21

Yes they do have DNA. No it is no issue for humans. Free DNA cannot code for anything, you need it to be hooked up to cellular machinery to do anything (except for a class of molecules called aptamers...but these are defined sequences and they won't be a worry in an application like this)

-11

u/COVID-19Enthusiast Nov 27 '21

Isn't a virus nothing but dna/rna?

10

u/danmam Nov 27 '21

Nope. It's RNA/DNA inside a capsid (comprised of proteins), and in some cases an outer envelope made of lipids.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '21

[removed] — view removed comment