Thursday, August 14, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Scientists have found organisms that can break down plastic at colder temperatures

Published 17 May 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Researchers have found plastic-melting organisms in Svalbard.
2 minute read

Previously, organisms have only been found that can break down plastic at higher temperatures, such as at least 30 degrees Celsius.

Now, Swiss researchers have found organisms that can melt plastic even at lower temperatures, which they believe could contribute to better solutions for breaking down the increased plastic consumption in cheaper and more carbon-neutral ways.

Plastic consumption has become an increasing problem throughout the world as plastic contributes to a negative impact on the environment, animals and human health.

A large proportion of plastic does not break down completely, becoming microplastics that can take hundreds of years for nature to break down. Animals and humans then ingest these microplastics. For example, researchers at the Free University of Amsterdam recently found that 80% of participants in a study had microplastics in their blood.

In recent years, researchers have found more and more organisms that can break down plastics, which may also help to make them available for industrial use and break down larger quantities. There are a number of fungi, bacteria and even worms that can do this.

One problem is that these organisms need heat to survive and break down the plastic. Often at least 30 °C is needed, which is very costly and, according to researchers, not enough to achieve a so-called ‘carbon-neutral solution’.

Now, a group of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) has found organisms that can break down plastic at lower temperatures.

The researchers collected samples from 19 strains of bacteria and 15 strains of fungi found on plastic waste in Greenland, Svalbard and also in Switzerland. The bacteria and fungi were then grown under dark conditions and at temperatures between 4 °C and 20 °C. The study, published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology, explains that several tests were carried out on the organisms to examine their ability to melt different types of plastic materials.

It was found that 56% of the strains, i.e. eleven fungi and eight bacteria, were able to break down bio-based polyurethane (PUR). At the same time, 14 fungi and three bacteria were also able to digest plastic mixtures of PBAT and PLA.

It was very surprising to us that we found that a large fraction of the tested strains was able to degrade at least one of the tested plastics, says Dr. Joel Rüthi, who led the study.

The organisms were most effective at temperatures around 15 °C, but lower temperatures also worked for some of them.

The next step for researchers is to identify specific plastic-degrading enzymes produced by these strains, which could then lead to using these organisms to degrade plastics on an industrial scale and at lower temperatures.

Plastic is an umbrella term for many different materials with different uses. Most commonly, plastic is made from fossil raw materials, but it is also made from renewable raw materials.

There are also plastics made from bio-based raw materials such as sugar cane; however, this does not mean that they break down more easily in nature and are often just as difficult to degrade as plastics made from fossil raw materials.

Much of the plastic ends up in the sea, which is often disposable packaging and plastic bags. Often, the plastic waste has been dumped on land and then ends up in the sea in various ways, where it has an impact by, for example, fish and other animals getting stuck in the waste or by slowly breaking down into microplastics that are then eaten by marine wildlife.

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Comet from another solar system approaches Earth

Published 12 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The comet has not yet developed a tail, but has a "teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust".
2 minute read

A rare comet is approaching our solar system – but it will pass at a safe distance. In September, it may become visible to amateur telescopes.

The comet was discovered on July 1 this year by the Atlas telescope in Chile and was given the name 3I/Atlas. It is the third interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system – hence the number three in its name. The two previous objects are 1I/’Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019. The letter “I” stands for interstellar.

When NASA photographed the comet with the Hubble telescope on July 21, it was located approximately 447 million kilometers from Earth. Although it had not yet developed a typical tail, observers could see that the process was underway.

“Hubble shows that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus. Because Hubble was tracking the comet moving along a hyperbolic trajectory, the stationary background stars are streaked in the exposure”, writes NASA.

Unknown origin

The comet is currently traveling through space at a speed of approximately 210,000 kilometers per hour. It will pass closer to Mars than to Earth, but at a safe distance from both planets and therefore poses no threat. Astronomers initially estimated that the icy nucleus was several kilometers in diameter, but Hubble’s observations have refined the estimate to at most 5.6 kilometers – possibly as small as 320 meters.

3I/Atlas is expected to become visible even to amateur telescopes in September, according to CBS News. It will pass closest to the sun in October, but will not be visible from Earth at that time. In early December, it is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun, enabling new observations.

Which solar system the comet originates from is still unknown. As it approaches the sun, it will melt more and release gases that telescopes can analyze – gases that may provide clues about the comet’s origin.

Women’s pelvises becoming narrower

Published 4 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Midwives and cesarean sections may have played a role in evolutionary change, researchers suggest.
3 minute read

Over the past century, women’s pelvises have shrunk, according to a study that examined women in three different countries. Researchers see possible explanations in evolutionary development, where increased use of midwives and cesarean sections may have played a role.

In the study, researchers examined a total of 8,866 women in Australia, Poland and Mexico between 1880 and 1980. Researchers from the University of Łódź in Poland and the University of Adelaide in Australia looked at women’s bodies and how these have changed during that time period.

During this century-long period, they found that women’s pelvises in all three countries had shrunk by an average of 4.5 centimeters. At the same time, women’s height had increased by an average of 10 centimeters. Shoulder width had not changed noticeably.

The study is still a so-called preprint, which means it has not yet been reviewed by other researchers, but it nevertheless generates great interest.

The dataset is fantastic, says researcher Lia Betti at University College London to The New Scientist.

More difficult deliveries

With narrower pelvises, vaginal deliveries can become more complicated, while it can also reduce women’s risk of pelvic floor problems after delivery. In all three countries, approximately 40 percent of all births are assisted, meaning cesarean sections, forceps or vacuum extraction are used during deliveries.

The researchers believe that a reduced pelvis may partly be an evolutionary development since pelvic width is hereditary. Previously, birth canals that were too narrow could be life-threatening for both mother and child. But today, many difficult deliveries are resolved surgically or in other ways. In this way, genetic variants are passed on that previously could have led to fatal complications for mother and child. It is also more advantageous for humans to have smaller pelvises to more easily walk on two legs, but at the same time it becomes a dilemma since humans give birth to children with very large heads compared to other species.

Researcher Philipp Mitteroecker at the University of Vienna in Austria has studied women’s pelvises in a 2024 study, which also points out that narrower pelvises for women have more advantages than just being able to walk more easily on two legs. If the pelvis is wider, the load becomes greater and the pressure on the pelvic floor increases. The risk of urinary incontinence and what is called prolapse therefore becomes greater.

The unique midwife

Mitteroecker also points to the development of midwives, that is, the unique aspect that women for hundreds of thousands of years have received help from others during delivery. This may also have contributed to weakening the natural evolutionary pressure to give women wider pelvises.

C-section is, in a way, an extreme form of that, Mitteroecker tells The New Scientist.

At the same time, Betti is skeptical that assisted deliveries and especially cesarean sections – as well as heredity and evolution – alone can explain the increasing narrowing of women’s pelvises. She points out that humans have also become significantly taller during the same period. But this increased height is probably largely due to better nutrition – not genetic changes.

When nutrition is scarce, our developing bodies tend to allocate more nutrients to certain organs, including the brain, at the expense of others. But now we have ample nutrition, so our bodies may have reallocated nutrients. So we end up with different body proportions, she says.

Researchers: Gut bacteria may protect against PFAS

Published 4 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

Certain gut bacteria can absorb PFAS substances, according to new research from Cambridge University. An increase in these bacteria could contribute to better protection against the harmful effects of so-called forever chemicals.

In the study, which was published in Nature Microbiology, researchers identified a family of bacterial species that can absorb various PFAS molecules. These bacteria are naturally found in the human gut flora.

The researchers then added nine of these human bacteria to mice to “humanize” their microbiome and fed them food containing PFAS substances. They could then observe that the bacteria accumulated the chemicals, which were subsequently excreted in feces.

Furthermore, the researchers discovered that when the mice were exposed to increasing levels of PFAS, the bacteria worked harder and removed a consistent proportion of the toxic substances. Within minutes of exposure, the bacteria absorbed between 25 and 74 percent of PFAS.

“Slow poison”

PFAS are now found virtually everywhere – in everyday products, drinking water, food, and even in human blood. They are extremely difficult to break down, which has earned them the nickname “forever chemicals,” and can cause damage to both the environment and human health.

We’re all being exposed to PFAS through our water and food – these chemicals are so widespread that they’re in all of us., says researcher Dr Anna Lindell at Cambridge University, first author of the study, in a press release and continues:

PFAS were once considered safe, but it’s now clear that they’re not. It’s taken a long time for PFAS to become noticed because at low levels they’re not acutely toxic. But they’re like a slow poison.

Opens possibilities

The study’s results are promising and show for the first time that gut bacteria can help remove PFAS from the body. However, it has not yet been tested on humans, the researchers emphasize.

The goal is now to develop probiotic supplements that increase the amount of these beneficial bacteria in the gut and thereby protect against PFAS effects. The researchers point out that despite the documented health risks, very little is still being done to actively remove PFAS from the body.

The reality is that PFAS are already in the environment and in our bodies, and we need to try and mitigate their impact on our health now. We haven’t found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm, says Dr Indra Roux, co-author of the study.

Researchers’ new IVF method: Children born with DNA from three people

Published 20 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Archive image.
2 minute read

Eight children are reported to have been born in the United Kingdom with DNA from a mother and a father – and an additional person. The method has been justified as preventing the risk of inheriting life-threatening genetic diseases from parents.

The intervention technique is described in British media as groundbreaking and became possible after the UK changed legislation in the area in 2015. The UK’s fertility authority granted the first license in 2017 to a clinic at Newcastle University, where doctors were the very first to use the technique that reportedly aims to help women with mitochondrial diseases give birth to healthy children through artificial insemination.

Four boys and four girls, including a pair of identical twins, have been born through the method technically called mitochondrial donation therapy. The children currently show no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they risked inheriting. Another pregnancy is still ongoing.

Third person’s genes are passed on

As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby … we’re overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance“, says the mother of one of the girls according to the British liberal newspaper The Guardian.

The mitochondria affected by the treatment constitute 0.02 percent of human total DNA, which is why the researchers behind the technique do not fully embrace the description of the technique as giving rise to “three parents”. At the same time, mitochondria have their own genetic code and girls born with the help of this technique – and who carry the healthy third person’s/donor’s mitochondria – will pass on these genes to their potential children as well.

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