Still, a consensus is forming among those in the field: The threat of microplastics to some of our body functions is real, and it is growing. “We humans have to decide what to do with the knowledge that we are a little bit plastic inside,” says Heather Leslie, an independent ...
in earnest. And since 1940 or so, we have seen an absolutely exponential increase in the amount of plastic for the better part of 80 years. And scientists are finding that maps perfectly to that exponential rise in production. The exponential contamination of microplastics in the environment. ...
“The breakdown of larger plastic pieces into microplastics and nanoplastics presents significant threats to food systems, ecosystems, and human health,” said Dr. Tianxi Yang, an assistant professor in the faculty of land and food systems, who developed the tool. “This new technique allow...
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In contrast, other genome-editing techniques require the time-consuming and expensive design of a lab-made protein that targets a sequence of interest. The guide RNA is paired with a Cas9 enzyme to make edits in the genome. Once the RNA binds to the desired sequence, the enzyme swoops in...
Plastic is so cheap and easy to make, our use of it has grown at a phenomenal rate, and this has unintended consequences. It’s been found in the guts of creatures living deep in the ocean and even in human placentas....
Why do some studies detect effects while others do not? There are several possibilities. For one, the researchers used different experimental designs in their lab experiments. There's also the issue of using the term microplastics, which refers to a complex mixture of plastics that vary in mater...
Signs of environmental change and climate crisis are all around us, and once you start seeing them, it’s impossible to stop. Major hurricanes are becoming more common now in parts of the northeast, fire seasons come with regularity across North America, microplastics are seemingly everywhere and...
Future archaeologists will find a lot of plastic – like these microplastics on a Vietnamese beach – in layers of the Earth dating to the current era.Gabriel Wrobel,CC BY-ND We archaeologists used to dig primarily at sites that were easy to find. Technology is changing that. In fact, ap...
But after reading more stories about microplastics and PFAS, I wondered if my filter (I won’t name names) worked. The short answer is that it’s only certified to reduce one contaminant that might affect health: the industrial solvent trichlorobenzene. That revelation triggered an anxiety spiral...