Time again for news from the world of science! (Yes, you
remember science—the thing that depends on verifiable facts and repeated experimentation
to prove logical theories?) Today’s news is genuinely exciting and, in addition
to providing more plot bunnies than a patch of cerebral clover, these stories leave
actual room for optimism!
Osiris-Rex loves Bennu. At
least, judging by the kiss the NASA spacecraft gave the asteroid on Tuesday,
the first step in its mission
to collect dust and rock samples from the rugged bit of space voyager to bring
back home in 2023. The rendezvous with the asteroid has been underway since
launching from Cape Canaveral in 2016 and included a prolonged orbit of the
asteroid for data collection. Though data sent from the spacecraft confirmed
the sample collection was successful, it will be as long as a week before
scientists at NASA will know for sure whether the samples actually made it
onboard safely. If something went wrong, Osiris-Rex will have another chance to
complete the collection before the sample capsule parachutes into the Utah
desert on its return home. Even at this stage, however, NASA scientists were
over the moon. As NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine said, “We are on the way
to returning the largest sample brought home from space since Apollo. If all
goes well, this sample will be studied by scientists for generations to come.”
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Osiris-Rex: One small step for machine-kind . . .
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Cheap, clean and abundant energy? Wouldn’t
that be the answer to everyone’s prayers? But scientists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) believe they may be well on the way to making
good on that goal with a working
prototype of a fusion reactor. They have developed a design for a compact
fusion reactor that mimics the sun, smashing hydrogen atoms together to release
energy, thus generating less radioactive waste and using less fuel than any
conventional energy process.
The search for the dream of fusion, which does not generate
planet-warming greenhouse gases, has so far taken decades, but the MIT team
says in a series of peer-reviewed papers that construction on their tennis-court-sized
reactor, SPARC, could begin as early as next spring. Construction might take three
to four years, with a goal of beginning production of energy by 2035. This
would be a leap forward over SPARC’s closest competitor, the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France, which has been underway since
2013 and is not expected to produce any fusion reaction until 2035. The
MIT improved design uses superconducting magnets to contain the extremely hot
and high-pressure reactions going on inside the reactor, producing as much as
ten times the energy it consumes. Martin Greenwald, co-lead scientist on the
MIT team, is optimistic, but he does add one caveat: “If we can overcome the
engineering challenges, this machine will perform as we predict.”
Goodbye to plastic? No
matter how hard we all try to reduce, reuse and recycle, it seems there is just
too much plastic for our planet to handle. It fills up our garbage cans, our landfills,
our oceans. It strangles our sea creatures, settles at the bottom of the
deepest ocean crevices, poisons even our tiniest humans through the milk they
drink in their baby bottles. But what can we do? The corporations that rule our
lives won’t stop putting their products in cheap plastic containers, and most
of us have no choice but to buy what they sell.
But scientists at the University of Portsmouth in Hampshire,
England have been working with a plastic-eating enzyme called PETase (a natural
digestive substance discovered in a landfill in Japan in 2016). They have found
a way to accelerate this chemical’s ability to break down the avalanche of
plastic in our environment—by combining it with another enzyme called MHETase.
The new
“superenzyme” breaks down plastic six times faster than PETase alone.
Better yet, the process dismantles the petroleum-based product, leaving behind
the basic building blocks of the stuff so it can be used over and over again.
Not that the superenzyme works superfast; it would still take days or weeks to recycle
that soft drink bottle you just tossed in the trash. But researchers are
looking for ways to speed the process and scale up operations. At this stage of
the game, any progress is welcome.
Meanwhile, on Mars. First,
we hear there may be exotic
lifeforms flying (swimming?) around in the dense clouds of Venus. Now, it
seems, Mars
may be hiding an environment ripe for microscopic life in salty ponds below
its barren surface. Italian scientists reported their findings last week, more
than two years after identifying evidence of what they believe to be a network
of underground lakes in data sent back from the European Space Agency’s Mars
Express orbiter.
The research team, led by Roma Tre University’s Sebastian
Emanuel Lauro, used more than 100 radar observations from the orbiter from 2010
to 2019, analyzing the findings with a method similar to that used on Earth to
detect buried lakes in the Antarctic and Canadian Arctic. High concentrations of salt in the water
likely kept the lakes from freezing as Mars, once warm and wet, gradually
became dry, barren and cold. The surface temperature at the South Pole of Mars averages
an estimated 172 degrees Fahrenheit but gets temperatures warm underground. The
scientific team urged future missions to Mars to target this region, calling
the area of potential biologic interest. Co-author of the paper outlining the
team’s findings, Roberto Orosei, of Italy’s National Institute of Astrophysics,
insists it’s possible the subsurface lakes may have been “a place where life
could adapt and survive.”
And if that’s not a plot bunny, I don’t recognize a fluffy
tail when I see one.
Cheers, Donna
*Information for this week’s post provided by:
“Nasa Osiris-Rex spacecraft lands on asteroid Bennu in
mission to collect dust,” The Guardian, October 22, 2020. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/nasa-osiris-rex-spacecraft-lands-on-asteroid-bennu-in-mission-to-collect-dust/ar-BB1ai20O
“MIT Researchers Say Their Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely
to Work,’” by Victor Tangermann, futurism.com, September 29, 2020. https://futurism.com/mit-researchers-fusion-reactor-very-likely-work
“A new ‘super enzyme’ that digests plastic waste six times
faster, has been engineered, scientists say,” by Lynn Hasco, penn.live.com (PA
Patriot News), September 29, 2020. https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2020/09/a-new-super-enzyme-that-digests-plastic-waste-six-times-faster-has-been-engineered-scientists-say.html
“Clouds of Venus could harbor life, new study shows,” by Andrea
Leinfelder, Microsoft News, September 14, 2020. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/clouds-of-venus-could-harbor-tiny-floating-lifeforms-according-to-a-team-of-astronomers/ar-BB192inJ
“Salty lake, ponds may be gurgling beneath South Pole on
Mars,” by Marcia Dunn, AP News, September 28, 2020. https://apnews.com/article/lakes-astronomy-archive-mars-91d5aa0a083db0d338ce5241560c02b1
