Degrade

Scientists have engineered an enzyme to break down silicon-carbon bonds in siloxanes, marking a significant step towards making these widespread and environmentally persistent chemicals biodegradable. This innovation, achieved through directed evolution, paves the way for more effective management of silicone waste. Above is an artist’s depiction of an artificially evolved enzyme breaking a silicon-carbon bond. Credit: Caltech/DowScientists have successfully engineered an enzyme capable of breaking down the stubborn…

Photo taken in the Peera palsa site in Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland. Credit: Timo Kumpula Palsa mires found in the northernmost peatlands of Lapland are the main permafrost landforms in Fennoscandia. As the climate warms, palsa mires are expected to disappear and no new palsas have been observed to form. Active layer thickness is one of the most important parameters for monitoring permafrost conditions.…

The performance of ML models degrades as time passes and data distribution changes.Model aging chart showing the performance of an ML model degrading in time. Image retrieved from the original paper, annotated by the author.A recent study from MIT, Harvard, The University of Monterrey, and Cambridge showed that 91% of ML models degrade over time. This study is one of the first of its kind, where researchers focus on studying machine learning models’ behavior after deployment and how their performance evolves with unseen…

If you've ever been turning over your compost heap and found months-old "compostable" plastic items that were still mostly intact – well, you're not alone. New research states that 60% of such plastics don't fully biodegrade in home composting systems.The findings are the result of a study undertaken by scientists from University College London, which began with ordinary citizens from across the UK completing an online questionnaire regarding their habits and opinions relating to compostable plastic and food…

The search for new solutions to the growing problem of plastic pollution has led scientists to some interesting places that include the soils of a Japanese recycling center and the guts of superworms. These efforts have unearthed enzymes that can eat away plastic materials with high efficiency, and scientists in Spain have just discovered more in the saliva of wax worms, which have the ability to degrade plastic bags in hours at room temperature.The discovery of these enzymes stems from the work of Federica Bertocchini, a…

A team of scientists has discovered a simple, low-energy way to break apart one of the largest groups of 'forever chemicals', nefarious pollutants that have been linked to environmental harm and human health concerns.While practical applications are still a way off, scientists are in awe of the new technique's potential.In detailed simulations, PFAS molecules – long-chain synthetic chemicals with carbon-fluorine bonds so strong they were considered impossible to break without a great deal of effort – quickly 'fell apart'…