They talk about weight loss percentages like 4.25% and 1.14% for the untreated plastic. But look at the standard deviations (SD): 4.25 ± 5.3 *10⁻⁵%. The SD is 0.000053%. That is an unbelievably, almost impossibly, tiny error bar. It suggests their weighing method was insanely precise, which is great, but it makes you wonder how they controlled for every variable (like water absorption, dust) so perfectly to get such a clean signal. It feels a bit too perfect.
They report Cell Dry Weight (CDW) in grams per liter. The numbers are like 0.00039 ± 8.3 *10⁻⁵ g/L. That’s 0.39 milligrams of bacteria per liter of culture. That is an extremely, extremely low amount of growth. It’s hard to believe that such a tiny biomass could cause a measurable 4-20% weight loss in a piece of plastic in just one month. The math between the biomass produced and the plastic consumed doesn’t seem to add up intuitively.