Lore - BASE ZERO

Facts:

-cure to plastic is the bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis, which degrades and assimilates it using its own hydrolase enzyme. The degraded plastic can be then used as a carbon source for other microorganisms.

found in 2016, by scientists in the Sakai city of Japan.

-translucent, creamy colour in colonies

-found in plastic contaminated soil, oxygen rich soil and sewage sludge.

-can be grown in mediums like TSB (tryptone soy broth agar)

-tsb ingredients: glucose (honey), sodium chloride (salt), peptone (organs of pigs/cows) dipotassium hydrogen phosphate (man made oat milk) powder?

-can be modified by using Azotobacter sp.'s genes that allows them to survive in places with lots of plastic like soil or water.

How does the immune system react?

-if the micro-plastics aren't clean, the immune cells engulf the plastic particle and die faster. This sends a signal to other immune cells to rush on it which can lead to a strong inflammatory reaction and or possibly aggravate existing inflammatory diseases of the lungs or gastrointestinal tract.

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Lore:

In the year 1907, the first of the Baekeland legacy was created : the invention of plastic. The amalgamation of formaldehyde and phenol, forced under great heat and pressure to create the world's first fully synthetic 'plastic'.

From after the first world war onwards, to reconstruct the derelict cities and save the natural resources that were running out, using plastic as an alternative was a very popular and needed choice. During the 1960's and 1970's is when consumers craved plastics to replace traditional materials because it was a cheap, versatile, sanitary, and easy to manufacture into a variety of forms.

Thus the empire expanded and the global production of plastic increased from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to 380 million metric tons in 2015. An estimated two-thirds of all plastic ever produced has been released into the environment and remained there in some form—as debris in the oceans, as micro- or nanoparticles in air and agricultural soils, as microfibers in water supplies, or as micro-particles in the human body. Due to the lack of restoration to the Earth's natural lands and habitats, over the course of another 500 years, micro-plastics begin to threaten the human race and mother nature.

Within the ruins of the Earth, the descendants of the source, the Baekeland Corporation would work to turn back the damage their invention had caused.

In the current timeline YEAR 2512, the 15th generation of Baekeland leaders had just finished their centuries of research and had discovered the cure to treat the infection; commencing the start of: PROJECT BASE ZERO.

In the Arctic, the effects of global warming have started to take their toll on the ice caps and their inhabitants. Most animals have died out due to the loss of habitat and disruption to the food chain.

Bees and related are scarce and rarely seen.

Atlanta Baekland, 15th Head of Baekland Research Corporation and newly formed lead researcher of PROJECT BASE ZERO would begin her journey towards the Arctic in search of component 1: specially formed glucose in the form of frozen Dicentra honey.

272 years ago, an unnamed wealthy merchant set sail to the Arctic in hopes of preserving his secret stash of highly sought after Dicentra honey, known to be a lustrous glowing golden colour but toxic to the body. His records were the only thing left that had ever mentioned the sort, valuing up to 3.5 million local currency.

However, many had not dared to set foot to claim the property of the dead, as the ship had sunken and the plastic infection had reached the crew members, leaving their limbs rendered useless as they slowly died of frostbite.

Until now.