By Christine Ottery

Fungus helps plastic decompose

BPA, or ‘bisphenol A’, is a plastic that has a bad rep. It is very hard wearing, and used in everything from DVDs to lenses in glasses, but this also means that it resists decomposition. According to the Food Standards Agency, there is also concern over the safety of BPA, especially with regards to the development of fetuses and young children.

Scientists working in Chennai, India have published a new study in the journal Biomacromolecules that suggests pre-treating plastics containing BPA with UV heat and light and exposure to specific fungi can increase its rate of decomposition – crucially without releasing BPA in the process. This is because the fungi feed off the BPA for energy.¹

Seas heating up

Swimming in warm seas on holiday is part of the fun. But the oceans heating up is actually a troubling indicator of climate change, because the upper ocean absorbs excess energy created by manmade greenhouse gases.

A new international meta-analysis, led by John Lyman from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, and published in Nature, came to the conclusion that there has been a warming trend of 0.64 watts per square metre from 1993 to 2008. Lynas and his colleagues had to compare and investigate previous studies with conflicting results to reach their figure, which is important because it can now be fed into various climate modelling scenarios.²

Corals come to mama

Marine researchers based in Curaçao in the Carribean have found that coral larvae use sounds to find parent reefs. Coral larvae, which look like tiny hair-covered eggs, must find a safe place to establish or they will perish.

A study published in PLoS ONE showed that coral larvae, which are visible to the naked eye, choose to move toward sound recordings of a coral reef out of two tubes they can go down.

It is unknown how the coral larvae detect sound but one hypothesis states that the sound could disturb water molecules that move the hairy cells of the larvae, acting as a directional prompt.

However, there is concern among scientists that vulnerable coral ecosystems could be threatened by manmade rising levels of underwater noise pollution, which could endanger the coral larvae.³

Government sign up to 10:10

The new Lib-Con coalition has announced that they are committed to reducing the Government’s carbon footprint by 10 per cent in a year, in line with manifesto pledges to sign up to the 10:10 campaign.

David Cameron and Chris Huhne, the new secretary for energy and climate change, made a speech at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

‘We are going to publish, in real time, how much energy that each department is using,’ says David Cameron. This transparency means that the public will be able to monitor the progress of government on their journeys to cut their carbon emissions by 10 per cent.

10:10 campaginers say that if the Government achieves its objective, it is ‘equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road.’

See the video below:

Cameron Commits Government to 10:10 from 10:10 on Vimeo.

1. Artham, T., & Doble, M. (2010). Biodegradation of Physicochemically Treated Polycarbonate by Fungi Biomacromolecules, 11 (1), 20-28 DOI: 10.1021/bm9008099 [↩]
2. Lyman, J., Good, S., Gouretski, V., Ishii, M., Johnson, G., Palmer, M., Smith, D., & Willis, J. (2010). Robust warming of the global upper ocean Nature, 465 (7296), 334-337 DOI: 10.1038/nature09043 [↩]
3. Vermeij, M., Marhaver, K., Huijbers, C., Nagelkerken, I., & Simpson, S. (2010). Coral Larvae Move toward Reef Sounds PLoS ONE, 5 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010660 [↩]