Steven Levy from Wired remembers the Power Mac G4 Cube, which debuted July 19, 2000. From the report: I was reminded of this last week, as I listened to a cassette tape recorded 20 years prior, almost to the day. It documented a two-hour session with Jobs in Cupertino, California, shortly before the launch. The main reason he had summoned me…
Tag: Plastics
Plastic rain: More than 1,000 tons of microplastic rain onto western US
New research finds that microplastics are emitted into the atmosphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastic-rain-western-us…
Chemical Engineers Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Useful Industrial Materials
“Chemical engineers from UNSW Sydney have developed new technology that helps convert harmful carbon dioxide emissions into chemical building blocks to make useful industrial products like fuel and plastics,” reports Phys.org:
The researchers, who carried out their work in the Particles and Catalysis Research Laboratory led by Scientia Professor Rose Amal, show that by making zinc oxide at very high temperatures using…
Happy World Oceans Day 2020
Why a World Oceans Day? Consider that Remdesivir, an antiviral medication now undergoing clinical trials as a possible Covid-19 treatment, contains compounds found in sea sponges. Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean is the theme for World Oceans Day 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/happy-world-oceans-day…
Study finds microplastics in Florida birds of prey for 1st time
A new study has confirmed the presence of microplastics in birds of prey, including hawks, ospreys and owls. The accumulation of microplastics in birds’ digestive systems could lead to poisoning, starvation and death. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastics-florida-birds-of-prey…
Carlsberg and Coca-Cola Back Pioneering Project To Make Plant-Based Bottles
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A biochemicals company in the Netherlands hopes to kickstart investment in a pioneering project that hopes to make plastics from plant sugars rather than fossil fuels. The plans, devised by renewable chemicals company Avantium, have already won the support of beer-maker Carlsberg, which hopes to sell its pilsner in a cardboard bottle…
Kelp is coming: How seaweed could prevent catastrophic climate change
From providing a green alternative to plastics to reducing methane emissions and sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, seaweed could be the secret ingredient we need to clean up our planet Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632821-100-kelp-is-coming-how-seaweed-could-prevent-catastrophic-climate-change/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
AI can search satellite data to find plastic floating in the sea
AI can check satellite images of the ocean and distinguish between floating materials such as seaweed or plastics, which could help clean-up efforts Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2241500-ai-can-search-satellite-data-to-find-plastic-floating-in-the-sea/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Mutant Enzyme Could Vastly Improve Recycling of Plastic Bottles
sciencehabit writes: Recycling isn’t as guilt-free as it seems. Only about 30% of the plastic that goes into soda bottles gets turned into new plastic, and it often ends up as a lower strength version. Now, researchers report they’ve engineered an enzyme that can convert 90% of that same plastic back to its pristine starting materials. Work is underway to scale…
Scientists Identify Microbe That Could Help Degrade Polyurethane-Based Plastics
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: German researchers report in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology that they have identified and characterized a strain of bacteria capable of degrading some of the chemical building blocks of polyurethane. The team out of Germany managed to isolate a bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. TDA1, from a site rich in brittle plastic waste that shows…