Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
New research from the University of Edinburgh in the UK has achieved a significant breakthrough by using Escherichia coli bacteria to convert molecules from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic into acetaminophen, commonly known as paracetamol. This offers a promising approach to addressing both plastic pollution and the reliance on fossil fuels in drug manufacturing. Acetaminophen is typically produced using fossil fuels. Replacing these ingredients with waste products like plastic could provide an innovative solution to two major environmental challenges. This new approach demonstrates how traditional chemistry can work with engineering biology to create living microbial factories capable of producing sustainable chemicals while also reducing waste, greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has taken the first ever close-up images of gigantic Martian "spiderwebs" on the Red Planet. The zig-zagging ridges, which were left behind by ancient groundwater, could reveal more about Mars' watery past and provide clues about whether the planet once harbored extraterrestrial life, researchers mentioned. The web-like features, known as "boxwork," are made up of criss-crossing ridges of mineral-rich rocks that infrequently litter the surface of Mars. The patterns can span up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) across and look as if they have been spun by giant arachnids when viewed from space. Smaller boxwork formations are found on the walls of caves on Earth and form via a similar mechanism to stalagmites and stalactites. Scientists have suggested the same mechanism created these structures on Mars, only on a much larger scale.
Researchers have found that climate change is bad for planes. In a new study, they explained that there is a heightened climate risk to airlines from thunderstorm microbursts, especially during takeoff and landing. The scientists revealed that climate change is making turbulence worse. The study found that there is a link between "freak wind gusts" and global warming. Using machine learning techniques, the researchers noted that heat and moisture are the primary reasons for the creation of "downbursts", the winds that trigger turbulence. Scientifically, global warming increases the amount of water vapour in the lower atmosphere. That's because 1°C of warming allows the atmosphere to hold 7% more water vapour. As the seas get warmer, extra moisture from the surface of the oceans evaporates and feeds the clouds. Increased heat and water vapour fuels stronger thunderstorms.
The giant dolphins are very intelligent and highly social. Using drones, researchers watched as resident pods in the Salish Sea broke off the ends of bull kelp stalks and rolled them between their bodies. This, the researchers say, is likely to be a grooming practice — the first tool-assisted grooming seen in marine animals. Not only are orcas spending time making kelp into a grooming tool, but they’re doing it socially. To make the tool, the orcas use their teeth to grab a stalk of kelp by its “stipe” — the long, narrow part near the seaweed’s holdfast, where it tethers to the rock. They use their teeth, motion of their body and the drag of the kelp to break off a piece of this narrow stipe. The researchers suggest this practise may be social skin-maintenance.
