Titan's mysteries revealed 🪐

Plus: A new enzyme might eliminate plastic waterway pollution May 02, 2022 [View in browser]( Titan is one of the most incredible worlds in our solar system. A moon of Saturn, it’s the only other place confirmed to have active water cycles like rivers, lakes, and rainstorms — although you don’t want to swim in it (it rains liquid methane rather than water). How this mysterious world came to be is a fascinating mystery, one that new research aims to unwrap. But before we talk Titan, let’s take a stand with some developments on the climate front. In a new video, YouTuber Matt Ferrell explores the many technologies out there tackling the problem of renewable energy intermittency. Good Morning. This is John, a writer at IE. This is The Blueprint. Let’s dig in. [Video]VIDEO OF THE DAY [Could the ocean be the future of energy storage?]( This could solve the intermittency problem of wind and solar energies. [Could the ocean be the future of energy storage?]( SCIENCE [Saturn's moon Titan is so similar to Earth. Now we know why]( [Titan, Saturn's moon.]( Saturn’s moon Titan’s water cycle is [a near-perfect analog to Earth’s]( with dunes of hydrocarbon sand — like the silicate-based deserts here on Earth. But organic hydrocarbons are much more delicate than the glassy silicates of Earth, so it's not clear how these structures even formed. - A Stanford research team studied a type of calcium carbonate sediment on Earth called the ooids to better understand why Titan's surface is so similar to Earth's. They found that it’s likely due to wind, seasonal change, and sintering — the process of forming a solid mass of material through heat and pressure without that material melting. A titanic step. "It's pretty fascinating to think about how there's this alternative world so far out there, where things are so different, yet so similar,” said study lead Mathieu Lapôtre, in an embargoed release shared with IE. We’ve taken [the first of many steps]( toward revealing all the secrets of one of the most interesting moons known to science. [Read More]( INNOVATION [A novel plastic-eating enzyme may solve our plastic woes once and for all]( [Gobbling up environment-throttling plastics in just a matter of hours.]( Researchers at the University of Texas, Austin have developed [an enzyme variant that can break down and recycle]( otherwise non-biodegradable plastic waste, and it can do in hours what would normally take hundreds of years. - Holy cow. “When considering environmental cleanup applications, you need an enzyme that can work in the environment at ambient temperature. This requirement is where our tech has a huge advantage in the future,” said professor Hal Alper, of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin, in [a blog post](. Baby steps. In the fight to preserve the Earth’s habitability, we tend to place the emphasis on finding new ways to live without producing waste. But until we own up to the [literal mountains of trash and waste]( from the past century or so of industrial excesses, we’ll have taken only baby steps toward becoming a mature civilization. [Read More]( HEALTH [Millions of COVID-19 shots to go to waste in the US as vaccine demand falls]( [And it's not easy to donate the shots to other countries either.]( The demand for the vaccine in the U.S. is plummeting, reportedly driven by misinformation about its safety and efficacy, in addition to a sizable portion of election-year politics. - The US was one of the first countries in the world to receive vaccine shipments, but it seems that even though many of those orders were shipped, [tens of millions of doses are quickly approaching their expiration date](. And, once expired, they can no longer be used and must be destroyed. In total, the US ordered an estimated 720 million doses between Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. - Tragic losses. "It is a tremendous loss of opportunity for these vaccines to not make it into the shoulders of those who need them," C. Buddy Creech, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program’s and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases, in an [ABC News report](. "Not only is it a financial loss for the purchaser of vaccines — the U.S. government — but also a significant health loss for those who are not yet protected from COVID and its complications." While indefensible, it should be noted that [President Biden alone]( does not have the authority to send the unused doses overseas, since it’d need congressional authorization. [Read More]( MAIL & MUSINGS It feels like we’ve waited decades for it to happen. When will Elon Musk’s Starship finally reach orbit? Be sure you check back tomorrow for the results! [Next month.]( [This summer, just wait.]( [It’s still years away. Relax.]( [Alas! That steel monster shall never circle thine world!]( Yesterday’s Results Yesterday we asked for your best guess on what the Event Horizon Telescope would reveal. And it seems that while more than one-quarter of you expect a new pic of a supermassive black hole, nearly half think we've found a breakthrough in the galactic core. A brand new discovery about the center of the Milky Way. 44% An image of Sagittarius A. 27% A clearer image of the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy. 17% The discovery of another black hole. 11% QUOTE OF THE DAY “ The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe: the only elements in their construction are our concepts of space and time. ” Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in the "The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes" (1992) AND ANOTHER THING... - Elon Musk accepts delivery of [new Raptor V2 engines](. Is Starship nearly ready to launch? - A new viral meme blames [375-million-year-old Tiktaalik fish]( for our having to go to work. (The New York Times $) - Scientists are beaming Earth's location into the cosmos — [despite the warnings](. - The first partial eclipse this year takes a [bite out of the Sun]( in the Southern hemisphere (Space.com) - Who is behind the sabotaging of [France's fiber optical cables]( - A [Colorado inmate just tested positive for the bird flu](. Nothing to worry about, right? (The Guardian) - Can multinational ocean sanctuaries [help corals survive climate change]( Prepared by John Loeffler and Brad Bergan Enjoy reading? Don't forget to forward to a friend! Was this email forwarded to you? [Subscribe]( [About Us]( | [Advertise]( | [Contact Us]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to our newsletter. 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