Wearing Synthetics. And Eating Them Too?

Synthetic fibers in a sweater can end up in the food chain.

The troubling news that plastic waste is piling up on ocean shores worldwide is not new. In May 2004 the BBC had this report, Plastic Fibre a Major Pollutant

While a picture is worth a thousand words, the plastic bottles shown in that article don’t tell the whole story, because it’s plastic fiber, as stated in the headline, that is the source of concern. Writing in a 2004 Science article, authors Thompson et al. noted:

Over the past 40 years, large items of plastic debris have frequently been recorded in habitats from the poles to the equator. Smaller fragments, probably also plastic, have been reported  but have received far less attention.

In the article, a variety of plastic types and sources were noted from samples taken mostly in the U.K.:

Nine polymers were conclusively identified: acrylic, alkyd, poly (ethylene:propylene), polyamide (nylon), polyester, polyethylene, polymethylacrylate, polypropylene, and polyvinyl-alcohol. These have a wide range of uses, including clothing, packaging, and rope, suggesting that the fragments resulted from the breakdown of larger items.

Another Reason to Dislike the Vuvuzela

During the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, it seemed to me that as much of the commentary was devoted to the vuvuzela as it was to football (known as soccer here in the US). Most fans seemed to either embrace or despise this ~60cm elongated plastic horn, which is popular in many African and Asian countries and can generate noise levels of up to 127 decibels—approximately equal to the pain threshold. I was first exposed to the vuvuzela while half-heartedly watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup as my British husband tried to explain the rules of the game. I don’t remember much about the game of football/soccer, but I do remember the loud, unrelenting and monotonous sound of those ubiquitous plastic horns. I couldn’t quite fathom the instrument’s popularity for several reasons: 1) The cacophony in the stadium drowned out any hope of hearing the commentators, 2) the instrument seemed to allow no variation in pitch or tone and 3) I felt sorry for the players and fans in the stadium who were being subjected to the ear-splitting noise, even though the fans seemed to be loving every minute of it. Perhaps I would have come down on the other side of the vuvuzela fence if I were more of a football/soccer fan and had been caught up in the fanfare associated with sport’s biggest contest, but I will admit that I was one of the vuvuzela haters.

Poisoners and Scientists

If you eat enough silver, you will turn blue, but it probably won’t kill you.

In the 1920s, you could buy energy drinks and cosmetics containing radium. Because of its beneficial effects on tumors, it was believed to be healthy.

Arsenic was once known as “the inheritance powder”, because it was so commonly used to eliminate relatives who stayed alive too long.

In the 1930s the poison thallium was used in depilatory creams, because of its excellent ability to make hair fall out, but also because of its ability to lend a beautiful pale luster to the skin.

These are just a few of the fascinating facts and stories you can find in “The Poisoner’s Handbook”, by Deborah Blum

Whorl by Whorl, I Am Science

Path through the Winter Garden at the J.C. Raulston Arboretum at N.C. State University (c) 2012 Michele Arduengo.

Walks outside with paper and paint, camera, notebook and pen, or just my thoughts and the setting sun have always been a habit of mine. Consequently, the Art Walk and Tour through the J.C. Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University at the Science Online 2012 (SCIO12) Meeting sounded like a delightful way to spend an afternoon. So I packed my camera, some additional watercolors and brushes and wandered the paths of the winter gardens on a cool, damp overcast afternoon along with a troop of other SCIO12 folks who were searching for new ways to communicate science.

Since the SCIO12 meeting, I have followed the #Iamscience discussion with interest. Reading the posts of others made me wonder, how did I become a scientist? When did I become a science writer? Where did the interest start? How did I end up where I am now?

A Little Science Humor for Lunch

At ScienceOnline 2012, Brian Malow also known as @sciencecomedian performed a short routine during the Saturday lunch. He complained that several jokes floating around the web were not attributed to him so I thought I would share a few I remembered complete with attribution. His sense of humor appealed to me as I was raised in a home rife with puns. Yes, my family can carry on an entire conversation dedicated to a single theme, no music necessary.

Fans of the television show “The Big Bang Theory” are likely to understand this reference: Schrödinger’s cat walked into a bar…or did it?

For chemistry buffs: Helium drifted into a bar. The bartender says “We don’t serve noble gases in this bar.” Helium doesn’t react.

If you enjoy reading about the Large Hadron Collider and the search for a certain particle: A Higgs Boson entered a church. The priest said “We don’t allow your kind in here.” The Higgs Boson replied “Without me, you have no mass.”

Microbiologists may appreciate this one: An infectious disease enters a bar. The bartender says “We don’t serve your kind. You’re Staph.”

More wordplay with particles: A neutron enters a bar. The bartender says “For you, no charge.”