Tag Archive for 'PET'

Johnson et al. report a biocompatible Lossen rearrangement that is catalyzed by phosphate in the bacterium Escherichia coli for the transformation of activated acyl hydroxamates to primary amine-containing metabolites in living cells. Image credit: Johnson et al., doi: 10.1038/s41557-025-01845-5.

Common Gut Bacterium Can Turn Everyday Plastic Waste into Paracetamol

Jun 24, 2025 by News Staff

Paracetamol, a pain medication also known as acetaminophen, is traditionally made from dwindling supplies of fossil fuels including crude oil. Thousands...

Pinchak et al. offer suggestive evidence of crime deterrent benefits of local street monitoring and dog presence and call attention to the contribution of pets to other facets of neighborhood social organization. Image credit: Marta Reinartz.

Study: Higher Neighborhood-Level Concentration of Households with Dogs Means Less Crime

Jul 5, 2022 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Social Forces, scientists from the Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin found that neighborhoods...

Machine learning guided predictions improve enzyme performance across PETase scaffolds. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z.

Scientists Engineer New Plastic-Eating Enzyme

Apr 28, 2022 by News Staff

Plastic waste poses an ecological challenge and enzymatic degradation offers one, potentially green and scalable, route for polyesters waste recycling....

Han et al. developed an ultra-thin loudspeaker that can turn any rigid surface into a high-quality, active audio source. Image credit: Felice Frankel.

Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Loudspeaker Created

Apr 27, 2022 by News Staff

The flexible, thin-film loudspeaker, developed by MIT researchers, weighs only 2 g, is 120 microns thick, and can generate high-quality sound no matter...

Knott et al. created a two-enzyme system for PET deconstruction, which employs one enzyme (PETase) to convert the polymer into soluble intermediates and another enzyme (MHETase) to produce the constituent PET monomers. This SEM image shows amorphous PET film after 96 h enzyme treatment at 30 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Knott et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2006753117.

Researchers Create Plastic-Degrading Enzyme Cocktail

Sep 29, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 2018, University of Portsmouth’s Professor John McGeehan and colleagues engineered an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the...

Electron microscope image of enzyme degrading PET plastic. Image credit: Dennis Schroeder / U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Researchers Create Plastic-Degrading Enzyme

Apr 18, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from the United States, UK and Brazil has engineered an enzyme which can digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET),...

Ideonella sakaiensis. Image credit: Shosuke Yoshida et al.

Ideonella sakaiensis: Newly-Discovered Bacterium Can Break Down, Metabolize Plastic

Mar 11, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

According to a group of biologists in Japan, the newfound species — named Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 — breaks down the plastic by using two...