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But building an enzyme that suits our purposes isn’t just a case of scientists tinkering until they get the perfect tool.
然而，构建一种符合我们目的的酶不仅仅是科学家不断调整、直至获得完美工具这么简单的事情。
Before the publication of Oda’s paper in 2016, no one knew that bacteria capable of digesting plastic existed.
在2016年小田教授的论文发表之前，没有人知道还存在能够消化塑料的细菌。
Now, we have one solidly documented case.
现在，我们有了证据确凿的研究案例。
Given that we have discovered only a tiny fraction of microbial life, a far better candidate might be out there.
鉴于我们目前仅探索到微生物生命的一小部分，可能还存在更好的候选物。
In engineering terms, we may currently be trying to squeeze elite racing performance out of a Toyota Yaris engine, when somewhere, yet to be discovered, there is the bacterial equivalent of a Ferrari.
用工程术语来说，我们可能正试图用丰田致炫发动机追求顶级赛车的性能，而在尚未被发现的某个地方，可能存在与法拉利相当的细菌。
“This is something we constantly struggle with,” says Beckham. “Do we go back to the well to search and see if nature has the solution? Or do we take the small footholds we have to the lab and work on them now?”
贝克汉姆说：“我们一直在上下求索的问题是，我们是应该重返自然界不断搜寻，看看自然界是否存在解决方案？还是应该将我们已经掌握的微小立足点带回实验室进行深入研究？”
This question has led to a boom in what is known as bioprospecting.
这一问题也引发了所谓的“生物勘探”热潮。
Like panning for gold in a river, bioprospectors travel the world looking to discover interesting and potentially lucrative microbes.
就像在河里淘金一样，生物勘探者环游世界寻找有趣和具有潜在价值的微生物。
In 2019, a team at Gwangju National University in South Korea took a construction drilling rig to the municipal dump outside town, and drilled 15 metres under the trash trenches to reveal decades-old plastic garbage.
2019年，韩国光州教育大学的一个团队将一台建筑钻机带到城外的市政垃圾场，为研究埋藏了几十年的塑料垃圾，他们在垃圾沟下钻了15米。
In it, Prof Soo-Jin Yeom and her students found a variety of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that appeared to be able to survive using polyethylene bags as food.
通过钻探，杨秀进(Soo-Jin Yeom)教授和学生发现了“苏云金杆菌”的一种细菌变种，这种细菌变种似乎能够以聚乙烯袋为食而存活下来。
Yeom’s team is now studying which enzymes the bacterium might be using, and whether it is really able to metabolise the plastic.
杨教授的团队目前正在研究这种细菌可能使用的酶，以及这种细菌是否真的能够代谢塑料。
In vast mangrove swamps on the coastlines of Vietnam and Thailand, Simon Cragg, a microbiologist from the University of Portsmouth, is hunting for other potential PET-eating microbes.
在越南和泰国沿海的大片红树林沼泽中，朴茨茅斯大学的微生物学家西蒙·克拉格正在寻找其他可能以PET 塑料为食的微生物。
“The plastic-degrading enzymes we’ve already seen are quite similar to natural enzymes that degrade the coatings of plant leaves,” he told me.
他告诉我：“我们已经发现的塑料降解酶与降解植物叶片外层的天然酶非常相似。”
“Mangroves have a similar waterproof coating in their roots, and the swamps, sadly, also contain a shocking amount of plastic tangled up in them.”
红树林的根部也有类似的防水涂层，但令人遗憾的是，这些沼泽地中含有数量惊人的缠绕在树木根部的塑料。”
His hope is that bacteria capable of degrading the mangrove roots will be able to make the jump to plastic.
他希望那些能够降解红树林根部的细菌能够跳到塑料上进行降解。
