François Chung, Ph.D.

Reddit post & Popularity

Chung, François [u/fchung]. “AI-engineered enzyme eats entire plastic containers.” Reddit, 29 May 2022, www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/v0dmxu/aiengineered_enzyme_eats_entire_plastic_containers.

Related news & Summary

Krämer, Katrina. “AI-engineered enzyme eats entire plastic containers.” Chemistry World, 9 May 2022, www.chemistryworld.com/news/ai-engineered-enzyme-eats-entire-plastic-containers/4015620.article.

A plastic-degrading enzyme enhanced by amino acid changes engineered by a machine-learning algorithm can depolymerize polyethylene terephthalate (PET) at least twice as fast, and at lower temperatures, than today's best enzyme. It all started when, six years ago, scientists digging through the debris of a plastic bottle recycling plant discovered a bacterium capable of degrading PET. The engineered enzyme was able to break down an untreated plastic container in 48 hours.

References

Reddit post & Popularity

Chung, François [u/fchung]. “Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star.” Reddit, 12 March 2022, www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/tce083/earthlike_planet_spotted_orbiting_suns_closest.

Related news & Summary

Castelvecchi, Davide. “Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star.” Nature, 10 February 2022, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00400-3.

Astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Called Proxima Centauri d, this planet is likely smaller than Earth and may have liquid water oceans. Proxima Centauri d was detected by measuring tiny changes in Proxima Centauri's light spectrum as the planets' gravity pulled it during orbit. This discovery was made thanks to a state-of-the-art instrument called ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations), which was used at the Very Large Telescope (Chile).

References

Reddit post & Popularity

Chung, François [u/fchung]. “How six scientists survived ‘living on Mars’ for a year: « The habitat had a small living room, 1.5 bathrooms, a galley kitchen and tiny living quarters for each of the six up a flight of stairs. Power came via solar panel, water via large storage tanks outside. ».” Reddit, 27 November 2020, www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/k24dsy/how_six_scientists_survived_living_on_mars_for_a.

Related news & Summary

Tucker, Reed. “How six scientists survived ‘living on Mars’ for a year.” New York Post, 14 November 2020, nypost.com/2020/11/14/how-six-scientists-survived-living-on-mars-for-a-year/.

Contrary to what one might think, the greatest danger to early explorers of the Red Planet might not be massive dust storms or toxic cosmic rays. The danger would more likely come from the threat of going mad from a teammate's loud music or his/her habit of leaving dirty dishes in the sink. This means that astronauts will need to be psychologically strong enough to survive the long journey to Mars and the experience of isolation that journey entails. That's why six volunteers were quarantined in a small habitat for an entire year to simulate living conditions on Mars.

References

Reddit post & Popularity

Chung, François [u/fchung]. “NASA reveals incredible new images of stars, galaxies and supernova remnants: « NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a super powerful telescope named after the Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. ».” Reddit, 3 October 2020, www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/j4edpm/nasa_reveals_incredible_new_images_of_stars.

Related news & Summary

Serrels, Mark. “NASA reveals incredible new images of stars, galaxies and supernova remnants.” CNET, 8 September 2020, www.cnet.com/science/nasa-reveals-incredible-new-images-of-stars-galaxies-and-supernova-remnants/.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a powerful telescope named for Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. This observatory has already made it possible to deliver incredible astronomical discoveries. It has now helped produce dazzling images of galaxies, stars, planetary nebulae and supernova remnants. Although these images are not necessarily representative of what can be seen with the naked eye, they have been put together using data not only from Chandra, but also from several other sources.

References