Q&A: Scientists uncover process behind plastic's dangerous fragment shedding

In a laboratory in the basement of the University of New Mexico, Marcus Garcia searched a container full of plastic. He found bottles, pieces of fishing net, a toothbrush, a cup with a character from Pokémon and a GI Joe. "Yes!" he exclaimed, lifting a tip of discarded pipette. I found it! Dr. Garcia, a postdoctoral researcher in pharmaceutical science, discovered the tip of the pipette last summer with his colleagues on a remote beach in Hawaii…

Researchers discover why plastic sheds dangerous fragments

The world is littered with trillions of micro- and nanoscopic pieces of plastic. These can be smaller than a virus -- just the right size to disrupt cells and even alter DNA. Researchers find them almost everywhere they've looked, from Antarctic snow to human blood. In a new study, scientists have delineated the molecular process that causes these small pieces to break off in such large quantities.

Q&A: Scientists uncover process behind plastic's dangerous fragment shedding

The world is littered with trillions of micro- and nanoscopic pieces of plastic. These can be smaller than a virus—just the right size to disrupt cells and even alter DNA. Researchers find them almost everywhere they've looked, from Antarctic snow to human blood.

The great European rivers are all contaminated by microplastics, 14 studies published simultaneously on April 7 report. Not to mention seas, soils, lakes... A very hot topic, therefore, that of microplastics, and which in recent days has prompted the British Business Waste to publish disturbing images, created with AI, of the possible effects on the face of strong exposure to microplastics. The images show two young people, a man and a woman, wi…

According to recent studies, the state of many water bodies in Europe is in a worrying state because of microplastic particles.

Harmful to health and the environment, capable of driving bacteria and toxic products, these particles, often invisible to the naked eye, are omnipresent in the Seine, Garonne, Thames or Tiber, unveils this Monday, April 7th the Tara Ocean Foundation, in an unprecedented study conducted since 2019.