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CARL AZUZ: You've made it to Friday.
Awesome.
Welcome to "CNN 10."
My name is Carl Azuz.
Happy to be wrapping up the week and month with you.
Today's show starts with science and what might be
the discovery of a new planet.
Since 1999, NASA has had a telescope in orbit
called the Chandra spacecraft.
They put it tens of thousands of miles above our heads
because it's an X-ray telescope.
This technology enables it to observe
really hot parts of the universe like exploded stars.
But because Earth's atmosphere naturally absorbs x-rays,
scientists needed to place the $3 billion
telescope into space.
The Chandra telescope recently helped
them detect something in another galaxy,
signs of a planet transiting a star.
This doesn't mean scientists actually saw the planet
or that the telescope actually photographed it.
It means that something caused the light from the star
to dim a little bit.
And that something could be a planet passing between the star
and the telescope.
Astronomers have seen this before.
They've detected thousands of exoplanets orbiting
stars outside of our own sun.
But this one would be in a galaxy far,
far away known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.
It would take 28 million years for light
to travel from here to there.
And if what they've noticed is indeed a planet,
it would be the first one ever detected
outside of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
You keep hearing me say words like detected,
might, and could.
That's because scientists don't know
for sure if they've identified an extragalactic exoplanet.
They believe that if they have, it
won't transit or cross in front of its star
again for another 70 years.
That means it could take decades before they're able to confirm
their theory if they happen to be looking for this
at just the right time.
So a lot of uncertainty about the discovery, but researchers
plan to keep tabs on it and keep looking
for signs of other planets in other galaxies.
10-second trivia.
Which of these mountains is also known as Mongibello?
Vesuvius, Denali, Kilimanjaro, or Etna?
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Mongibello is the Sicilian name for Mount
Etna, which is located on the island of Sicily.
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One of the many side effects of the COVID pandemic
is that it dramatically raised the demand for plastic.
Masks, gloves, food containers, packaging
for goods shipped around the world,
calls for all this stuff skyrocketed.
And while plastic can be recycled,
it became much cheaper last year to buy new plastic
than the recycled kind, more than 80% cheaper
according to an analysis cited by the Reuters news agency.
Plastic is inexpensive, it's durable, and tons of it
winds up in landfills, where it sits without decomposing
for a very long time.
There are alternatives being developed
like you're about to see, but they
don't always work as intended.
The original plan for an alternative packaging
called Ooho was to replace water bottles.
But as technology news site BGR reports,
the small liquid pods didn't hold nearly as much fluid
as bottles, they're not as durable as containers you could
throw into a gym bag, and they don't last as long on a store
shelf, for instance, to compete with plastics
that can sit for months.
But the company that makes Ooho is finding other ways to move
forward with its mission.
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PIERRE PASLIER: The problem with plastic
is that it's indestructible.
It's a material that will stay around for hundreds of years.
So it's really, really performant,
but we use it for the wrong reasons.
We use it in places where we throw away something
after just five minutes of use.
And that's really this problem we're trying to solve.
- According to the UN, every year 300 million tons
of plastic waste is generated.
Half of that plastic is designed to be used only once.
That's why Pierre Paslier set out to find a material that
eliminates our reliance on plastic
for single-use packaging, taking his inspiration from nature.
PIERRE PASLIER: We chose seaweed because it has a lot
of sustainable credentials.
First of all, it grows very fast.
Some of the seaweed that we've tried in the lab
grows up to 1 meter per day.
Second of all, it doesn't use fresh water
or fertilizer to grow.
It just grows on its own in the sea without human intervention.
And on top of that, when it grows, it sequesters carbon.
So it really is something that has a lot more potential
in helping us getting out of this problem
than a lot of other biomass.
- Notpla has used this innovative material to produce
its flagship product Ooho.
The packaging made out of seaweed
can hold drinks and sauces and is able to biodegrade
in a matter of weeks.
PIERRE PASLIER: It's really in line
with fruits and vegetables.
So and that plant packaging can break
down in a home compost extremely fast just like an apple or just
like an orange.
- The entire bubble can even be swallowed whole.
Manufacture begins in Notpla's East London warehouse,
where chemists mix different seaweed and plant
extracts to create a solution.
This solution is used to create a thin membrane, which
has properties suitable for packaging
ready to be filled with anything from ketchup to cocktails.
The concept works for any liquid.
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PIERRE PASLIER: We partnered for the London Marathon
with Lucozade.
They were using plastic bottles and cups.
And they were really keen to reduce the amount of waste that
is created at these events.
And, actually, at the end of the event,
it was brilliant that the trucks that clean the streets
and usually have to stop at each station
to pick up all of that plastic, they just drove by our station.
There was nothing to pick up.
So it was really incredible, the feeling that we had delivered
hydration without the plastic.
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- And beyond liquids, Notpla is looking to revolutionize
the takeout food industry with British delivery company
justeattakeaway.com seeking to replace
the plastic that typically lines food
delivery boxes with seaweed.
ROBIN CLARK: What we wanted to find
was not just a card box because that would leak.
And so what the guys at Notpla have done so cleverly
is add a lining to that card that
gives the heatproof, waterproof, greaseproof
properties of plastic but disappears in the ground
in a couple of weeks.
PIERRE PASLIER: Nature has all of the solutions.
We just have to continue getting our inspiration from it.
Different plants, different trees,
different vegetables, this is what the future looks like.
We need to use more of other natural materials.
And I think through this diversity,
we can really solve this problem.
And I'm really hopeful that we will.
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CARL AZUZ: Rolling pumpkins, smashing pumpkins, sledding
on pumpkins, 10 out of--
this is how some students at an Ohio high school
celebrate the Halloween season.
It's a tradition dating back to the 1960s.
They have a whole mess of pumpkins
dumped on a steep hill.
They smash some of said pumpkins on said steep hill,
and then they slide down the slimy pumpkin
innards on sleds, boxes, plastic pools,
whatever they can find, really.
Money is raised in advance to pay
for the cleanup and any police tickets that might be issued.
It's impossible for pumpkin rolls
to stem from what's discreet when you're having a gourd time
and sliming up and down the street.
You could eat some seeds or bake some bread,
but where's the fun in that when you can bust some pumpkin
heads and sled as part of a master plant?
It's vine time, a slick schtick of fruit
they'll never want to drop.
And you can easily see the glee they glean
from the cream of the crop.
All right, pumpkin puns.
They'll grow on you.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Before we leave today, we want to make a stop in Four Oaks,
North Carolina to shout out the students
of South Johnston High School.
We hope you and everyone else watching
has a wonderful weekend.
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