On this week's news update…

Recycled Fishing Nets…

Fishing nets are turned into skateboards…

Tackling Climate Change

Metal boxes help tackle climate change…

Inspiring Penguins

And penguins inspire the latest underwater technology!

First up…

Recycled Fishing Nets

Plastic in the ocean is a huge problem, and discarded fishing nets are one of the worst polluters. They can entangle and kill marine mammals and damage their habitats. Pollution also kills fish, which can have a devastating effect on fishing communities too.

But when a team in Chile learned that plastic fishing nets are made from highly recyclable materials, they realized they could help turn this huge problem into a solution.

They now work with local fishermen and pay them for collecting discarded nets. In the past year, 10 truckloads of nets have been pulled from the sea.

These are sent to a recycling plant, transformed into pellets, and used to make hats, sunglasses and skateboards.

Recycling the fishing nets has many benefits: less plastic in the sea helps protect marine life, and healthier marine life helps protect the fishermen’s livelihood. A positive use for a harmful material!

Next up…

Tackling Climate Change

In Iceland, scientists have opened a facility that will reduce carbon emissions by sucking carbon dioxide out of the air!

These metal boxes use fans to suck in air and capture carbon dioxide on a filter material. Once enough carbon dioxide has been captured, the collector closes, and is heated. The carbon dioxide is then mixed with water, and pumped deep underground, where it eventually turns into rock.

Each year, this facility will suck in the same amount of carbon dioxide that is pumped out by 870 gas-fueled cars. And the facility hopes to expand so it can capture even more carbon dioxide in the future.

Thanks to scientists who continue to develop imaginative solutions like this, we will be ever closer to tackling climate change.

And finally…

Inspiring Penguins

Studying oceanography, the science of the ocean, is an important job. But exploring the sea has its difficulties. Stormy weather makes research trips more dangerous, and data collecting devices often get caught on rocks, or fishing nets.

So when engineers were designing the Quadroin, the latest underwater research device, they looked to sea dwelling animals for inspiration. Cue one of nature’s best swimmers, the penguin!

Their shape makes them very efficient in the water. Their streamlined bodies reduce drag, making them fast swimmers, and their wings and feet function like propellers, which move them forward very quickly!

The Quadroin’s shape is based on that of the penguin, so that it can move through the water at high speed, and even dive to a depth of 150 meters, just like a penguin! Fitted with miniature sensors, including GPS, it can collect data from areas that are hard to reach and difficult to navigate.

Thanks to technology inspired by penguins, we'll have a better understanding of previously unexplored parts of the ocean.

That's all for this week, we'll see you next time!