Posted in October 2009

Researchers win "Ig Nobel" prize for cutting waste with panda feces

Posted on 20 October, 2009

Researchers from Kitasato University have been awarded this year's Ig Nobel Prize in biology for developing a method to cut kitchen waste by using bacteria derived from the feces of giant pandas.

Fumiaki Taguchi, professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Kitasato University in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, shared the prize with two Chinese researchers who were graduate students at the university.

The idea to use panda feces to treat kitchen waste struck Taguchi when he suspected that giant pandas, which consume large volumes of bamboo, might have a particularly potent combination of bacteria in their intestines that decompose the leaves.

After identifying about 270 different microorganisms in panda dung, the researchers isolated five types of bacteria most effective at breaking down proteins and fats. Experiments demonstrated that this potent blend could, in some cases, turn more than 95 percent of raw kitchen waste into water and carbon dioxide. Research is still underway to put the method into practical use.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given out each October for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

Links:
- Cutting waste with panda poo nets academic Ig Nobel Prize [The Japan Times]

- Microbial Treatment of Kitchen Refuse with Enzyme-Producing Thermophilic Bacteria from Giant Panda Feces [Science Links Japan]