As a result, we had to streak and restreak several times.

This graph shows that our bacteria really do have a genetic pathway to biodegrade phthalates.

They can be absorbed by skin contact, ingested, and inhaled.

This means that our bacteria were actually living off of phthalates.

As a result, they easily escape into our environment.

Estelle...

Estelle?

So we figured, if there are places along our Fraser River that are contaminated with phthalates, and if there are bacteria that are able to live in these areas, then perhaps, perhaps these bacteria could have evolved to break down phthalates.

But for now,

Golly, Ester!

The first step in our project was to collect soil samples from three different sites along the Fraser River.

This implied that, if anything grew in our cultures, then they must be able to live off of phthalates.

I know some of you in the crowd are thinking, well, carbon dioxide is horrible, it's a greenhouse gas.

Not only do phthalates pollute our environment, but they also pollute our bodies.

Good night, Ester.

We aimed to find bacteria from our local Fraser River that can degrade a harmful plasticizer called phthalates.

Estel, you are simply our Hope.

Aluminum buffer action, aluminum hydroxide is what we think it is, uh, plus the barium carbonate, strontium titanate, strontium oxides, barium oxides, probably some aluminum oxides in there.

We read that each year, the Vancouver municipal government monitors phthalate concentration levels in rivers to assess their safety.

Out of thousands of bacteria, we wanted to find ones that could break down phthalates, so we enriched our cultures with phthalates as the only carbon source.

And with that call, my life would change forever.

We hope that in the near future, we'll be able to create model organisms that can break down not only phthalates but a wide variety of different contaminants.

And this is an amino acid.

Acid?

So Miranda and I shared this research at the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge competition and were recognized with the greatest commercialization potential.

Puffuffuff, what?

And you could also know that what you're dealing with is a strong acid.

sulfuric acid.

Well it turns out, we have many different alternatives for such a set of building blocks.

So, fungi and mycelium sequester carbon dioxide in the form of calcium oxalates.

In particular vitamin B1, which is thiamine,

Acid for blood.

My next step's gotta be oxygen.

Ammonium dysterate.

Methyl isocyanate.

To make the matter worse, phthalates are found in products to which we have a high exposure, such as babies' toys, beverage containers, cosmetics, and even food wraps.

There are three basic limitations of scuba diving.

It has many consequences.

The main framework material of coral reefs is calcium carbonate.

For example, we might say that, and this isn't the actual code, but maybe UAC, and I should look these up.

This isn't Volvos this is volcanoes.

That's what we use to inject, as we start to do our deep dives.

We need to breathe.

Unlike nitrates and peroxides, it gives off no signature.

These granules contain three essential plant nutrients.