And only man is vile, take 2

Last week's Science in Action had a short piece about a plastic-eating caterpillar (following another piece about plastic pollution of the sea – which explains the wording at the beginning of the Science in Action blurb):

It seems to me that this is BIG NEWS. As Silver Bullets go, this is pretty silvern (which, incidentally, isn't a typo, though heaven knows you might be forgiven for expecting one given my past performance: think of Golden: it's an adjective). But why has nobody made more of this?

The Science in Action website, which purportedly brings you all the week's science news  claims that a researcher at the University of Cantabria "has identified enzymes responsible for munching [sic – I don't think the enzymes do that; but still, that's not the point...] through resilient polymers..." This suggests a new discovery has been made.

But more than five years ago I reported  (here) on a not dissimilar piece of research:

<pre-script>

...a piece in the University of Cambridge's Research review.

This very hungry caterpillar produces "something that breaks the chemical bond, perhaps in its salivary glands or a symbiotic bacteria in its gut", says Paulo Bombelli, a Cambridge researcher and co-author of the article.

...the degradation rate is extremely fast compared to other recent discoveries, such as bacteria reported last year to biodegrade some plastics at a rate of just 0.13mg a day. Polyethylene takes between 100 and 400 years to degrade in landfill sites.  "If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable," said Cambridge's Paolo Bombelli...

...As the molecular details of the process become known, the researchers say it could be used to devise a biotechnological solution on an industrial scale for managing polyethylene waste.

<2022-afterthought>
Oh I get it. The 2017 discovery was the basis for the discovery of the enzyme, which was previously only suspected: "something that breaks the chemical bond... If a single enzyme is responsible...". Don't mind me. Carry on please. (I'm used to forensic findings becoming available in a matter of days [if not hours if the cop has a back-story involving the researcher]. But real science progresses at a more leisurely pace.) 

<after-afterthought> 

Hang on though, the researcher interviewed in that Science in Action programme told of a discovery she had just happened to make by chance. Maybe this is a different critter after all. 

</after-afterthought> 

</2022-afterthought>

Then, in update, I added a PPPS

PPPS – Three months after this original post, Scientific American has caught up, with quotes from Spain's Institute of Biomedicine & Biotechnology of Cantabria (a happy echo of Universitas Cantabrigiensis) and the University of Tennessee.

</pre-script>

I wonder what the relationship (if any) between "the University of Cantabria" (cited in that Science in Action programme) and "Spain's Institute of Biomedicine & Biotechnology of Cantabria", which knew about this process more than five years ago. Perhaps the programme should be called Science Inaction (a title that might, unfairly in most cases, be thought to apply to all the years wasted since global warming was first detected towards the end of last century, as documented in Big Oil v. the World a mini-series which, unaccountably, I missed earlier this year).

<further-reading>
Radio 4 are reading extracts from The Climate Book this week at 09.45. I just mention it; it's not as though it mattered (NB: Irony [when you say something you don't m... Hold on, don't most people know that?]).
</further-reading>

Musical trouvailles 

I've mentioned before some of the musical associations I make. My latest is a sort of conditional ear-worm. Three examples spring to mind:

• Whenever I hear the closing bars of Mozart's clarinet concerto I think of this: 
  Here We Go Looby Loo.
• Whenever the news mentions Keir Starmer I think of this chorus from The Mikado.
• My metronome app has the down beat distinguished by a pitch a minor third higher than other beats. So I can't set it to 4:4 without thinking of the Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp.

The other trivium I have to report is that my electric shaver can be made to play the accompaniment to the Dr Who theme. I may post a recording (if I can get it up to performance standard).

Bye for now.

b