India, July 18 -- Last year, a group of high school students in California set out to tackle one of the most stubborn environmental problems in chemistry: PFAS, so-called 'forever chemicals' found in things like non-stick pans, fast food wrappers, and firefighting foam. These chemicals are hard to break down and have been linked to serious health concerns, including cancer and infertility.

The students worked with researchers to design enzymes that might be able to degrade PFAS. They used an artificial intelligence system, like ChatGPT, but trained to work with proteins instead of words, to generate thousands of new enzyme designs. Then they tested some of these in the lab and built computer programs to predict which ones were likely to ...