Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is the most abundant polyester plastic, with almost 70 million tons manufactured annually worldwide for use in textiles and packaging3. The main recycling process for PET, via thermomechanical means, results in a loss of mechanical properties4. Consequently, de novo synthesis is preferred and PET waste continues to accumulate. With a high ratio of aromatic terephthalate units—which reduce chain mobility—PET is a polyester that is extremely difficult to hydrolyse5. Several PET hydrolase enzymes have been reported, but show limited productivity6,7. Here we describe an improved PET hydrolase that ultimately achieves, over 10 hours, a minimum of 90 per cent PET depolymerization into monomers, with a productivity of 16.7 grams of terephthalate per litre per hour (200 grams per kilogram of PET suspension, with an enzyme concentration of 3 milligrams per gram of PET).
Basically, plastics are polymers (many units) of repeating building block monomers (single unit). The single unit is terephthalate, a " dimethyl-ester that is a major starting material for polyester fibers and coatings." So you're breaking down the already formed polymers into the building blocks that can be redeployed.
While CRISPR is an incredible technology with plenty of current exposure, the Nobel Prize in Medicine tends to move slowly; often discoveries that first debuted 20 years ago are only finally recognized. CRISPR will have its day in the Nobel sun, but unlikely in this decade.
"I have a friend who brags that he busts his * 60 hours a week driving a Coca-Cola delivery truck. Congratulations, I work 35 and make twice as much as he does."
The elitism you're all basking in is embodied by this sentence.
The original 2010 Nature paper coauthored by Wilson (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/nature0...) received a lot of press when it was initially published, and Wilson's back-and-forth with Dawkins and Pinker got just as much press back then. What Pinker is arguing against is not the initial paper (which he does address in this article briefly by repeating the kin fitness argument) but the claims that Wilson is reaching toward in his new book, The Social Conquest of Earth. Wilson's "press" is essentially this book. The "serious proposal" Pinker is refuting is this book, so this article is essentially a preemptive criticism.