SIX

THE MUSICAL

SIX the Musical is an unforgettable lesson of girl power, transforming history into her story! Henry Ⅷ’s famous wives tell their tales in the style of a fantastic pop concert, coming together to share their stories.

YOUR BREAK INCLUDES

•Return coach travel

•Overnight stay at a 3-or 4-star hotel outside London with full English breakfast

•Stalls（正厅前排座位）or Circle ticket

•Free for children under 10

TINA

THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL

Join us at London’s Aldwych Theatre for what The Independent describes as a “whirlwind of elation”. Officially one of the best-selling female artists in history, Tina Turner’s story has been transformed into an incredible musical-Simply the Best!

YOUR BREAK INCLUDES

•Return coach travel

•Overnight stay at a 3-or 4-star hotel outside London with full English breakfast

•Grand Circle ticket

LONDON SUMMER DAYS & ROYAL PALACES

ENJOY SUMMER BY THE BANKS OF THE THAMES

While the idea of walking along the River Thames on a warm summer’s evening might sound appealing, hotels in the capital during high season often come with a high price label. Not so with our great value break with accommodation at a centrally-located, 4-starhotel—ideal for exploring this lively city! With the chance to visit some of London’s most famous attractions and Royal Palaces too, this is the perfect city break!

YOUR BREAK INCLUDES

•Return coach travel

•4 nights at the 4-star Tower Hotel with full English breakfast

During a decline in tourism, one national park in Thailand has witnessed a dramatic rise in “visitors” recently. So many are the hermit crabs（寄居蟹）flooding into the otherwise empty beaches of Koh Lanta that shells for them to live in have become in short supply.

The Thai government moved quickly to ease the housing shortage, launching a public appeal for empty shells that netted over 200kg. On December 5 these were distributed around the park in a ceremony.

Hermit crabs rely on shells to protect their soft bodies, moving to larger shells as they grow. On Koh Lanta and the surrounding smaller islands, their rapid increase seems to be a natural phenomenon, rather than directly related to the absence of tourists. But the shortage of shells maybe man-made: pretty ones have long been gathered to be sold as goods. Crabs had begun to make do with potential death-traps such as plastic caps and bottles.

The shell drive was part of a government initiative to “regain the balance of nature”. “I have instructed all national parks to do whatever it takes,” says Varawut Silpa-archa, the minister for natural resources. His inspiration comes from the pause in tourism brought on by COVID-19. A ban on international visitors and the closure of national parks have helped nature recover, bringing endangered leatherback turtles back onto Thai beaches. In the coastal provinces of Phang Nga and Phuket, turtles have laid the largest number of eggs for 20 years.

The government has decided to try to copy the short break forced on it by COVID-19 in future. From now on, all national parks will be required to close for a short period during the off season and to limit the number of tourists through a reservation system when they are open. Although such restrictions mean reduced earnings from tourism in the short term, in the longer run more parks may help to keep the tourists coming.

The scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme(酶) PETase have now created a new enzyme called “cocktail” , which can digest plastic up to six times faster.

PETase breaks down PET back into its building blocks, creating an opportunity to recycle plastic and reduce plastic pollution. PET is the most common thermoplastic(热塑性塑料) used to make single-use drinks bottles, which takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment, but PETase can shorten this time to days. The initial discovery set up the prospect of a revolution in plastic recycling, creating a potential low-energy solution to tackle plastic waste.

Now, the same trans-Atlantic team have combined PETase and its “partner”, a second enzyme called MHETase, to generate much bigger improvements: simply mixing PETase with MHETase doubled the speed of PET breakdown, and engineering a connection between the two enzymes to create a “super-enzyme”, increased this activity by a further three times.

The team was co-led by the scientists who engineered PETase, Professor John McGeehan and Dr Gregg Beckham. Professor McGeehan said: “Gregg and I were chatting about how PETase attacks the surface of the plastics and MHETase chops things up further, so it seemed natural to see if we could use them together. Our first experiments showed that they did work better together, so we decided to physically link them. It took a great deal of work, but it was worth the effort — we were delighted to see that our new enzyme is up to three times faster than the separate enzymes.”

The original PETase enzyme discovery indicated the first hope that a solution to the global plastic pollution problem might be within grasp, though PETase alone is not yet fast enough to handle the tons of PET bottles. Combining it with a second enzyme, and finding together they work even faster, means another leap forward has been taken towards finding a solution to plastic waste. PETase and the new combined MHETase-PETase both work by digesting PET plastic. This allows for plastics to be made and reused endlessly, reducing our reliance on fossil(化石) resources.