What the scientists are saying…
The stool-reading toilet
Every time we flush the toilet, we dispose of potentially valuable medical data. Now, scientists in America have developed a “mountable lavatory system” to capitalise on this underused resource. The system, which can be fitted onto a standard cistern, performs a range of urine and stool tests, which it uses to search for markers of disease. Cameras and motion sensors capture information about stool consistency and “urodynamics” (flow rate, stream time and total volume of urine), while a “dipstick test” records white blood cell counts and protein levels. Because a lavatory may have multiple users, the system is also equipped with identification technology: a scanner on the flush handle that reads fingerprints and, lower down, a variant of facial recognition technology that verifies each user’s “analprint”. The researchers stress, however, that the system will not compromise privacy. “No one, not you or your doctor, will see the scans,” said Sanjiv S. Gambhir, professor of radiology at Stanford University.
Antarctica was once a rainforest
Ninety million years ago, Antarctica was a mild, rainy place covered in dense rainforest, an analysis of an ice core has revealed. Extracted from the seabed near the Thwaites Glacier, the ice was found to contain well-preserved forest soil from the mid-Cretaceous period, with a network of roots and the remains of flowering plants. Using computer simulations, an international team of scientists modelled the conditions that would have enabled such plants to grow, and found that the average temperature would have been about 12°C, rising to 19°C in summer. “Even during months of darkness, swampy, temperate rainforests were able to grow close to the
South Pole, revealing an even warmer climate than we expected,” said co-author Prof Tina van de Flierdt, of Imperial College London. Further modelling indicated that the global CO2 concentration at the time would have been very high – at least 1,120 parts per million – largely as a result of extreme volcanic activity. Last year, the global average was 414.7ppm.
New hope for plastic recycling
An enzyme discovered in a compost heap has raised the possibility of plastic bottles becoming truly recyclable. Most plastic bottles are made from polyethylene (or PEP) – the most common form of plastic – and while this can be recycled, the process is highly inefficient: not only is up to 70% wasted; each time it’s recycled, the plastic degrades. So the plastic from a water bottle can’t be turned into a new bottle. If it doesn’t end up in landfill at first, it will be “downcycled” into a material-like plastic fibre, and then end up in landfill. Now, however, the French company Carbios has developed a process that it claims can turn PEP into highquality new bottles. The process relies on a biological enzyme first discovered in 2012, which scientists at the company have “optimised”. In tests, the enzyme took ten hours to degrade 90% of a tonne of waste plastic bottles; the scientists then used this material to create new food-grade plastic bottles. Carbios plans to scale up the process, using fungi to produce large quantities of the enzyme. “Our goal is to be up and running by 2024 or 2025, at large industrial scale,” deputy chief executive Martin Stephan told The Guardian.
The end of corked wine?
Wine lovers dread opening a prized bottle and being greeted by a smell reminiscent of wet dog. They may not have that worry much longer. The world’s biggest cork manufacturer, Portuguese firm Amorim, says it has worked out a way of eliminating the problem. Cork taint, which affects some 2%-3% of bottles, is caused by a compound called TCA, which is formed when fungi present in cork come into contact with products used to clean and sterilise wineries. Although techniques exist for detecting TCA before the cork goes into bottles, Amorim’s new process – details of which it is keeping secret for now – is the first to work by expelling the chemical. “From next December,” chief executive António Amorim told a French wine magazine, “we will be able to guarantee that all the corks coming out of Amorim plants will have a zero TCA risk.” While many wines are now made with screw-tops or artificial corks, corks are still preferred for higher-quality bottles, as they result in better maturation over time.