I think my favorite bullshit about microplastics is the claim that everyone has a spoon's worth of microplastics in their brain. If true, millions upon millions of people would be having issues with blindness.
Replies
If I recall it was based on using a lipid-based test designed for a different type of tissue on brain matter, and since the brain is 60% lipids the results were thrown way off. Or something like that. But probably the bigger issue is reporters doing bad science reporting
jul 31, 2025, 2:25 am • 2 0 • view
The idea that any remotely credible scientific information would be expressed in the measurement of “a spoon” makes me want to scream
jul 31, 2025, 1:05 am • 1 0 • view
Why are you against common units of measurement to give people context? A tablespoon is a completely valid measure.
jul 31, 2025, 3:35 am • 1 0 • view
Agree. Also saying a rock in space is the size of 40 giraffes makes it more understandable to humans than exact measurements, esp this human who can't think in any measurement larger than a foot.
jul 31, 2025, 3:38 am • 0 0 • view
A giraffe costs $20-40k. I think measurements should make sense for the context. Personally I can visualize a spoon, I can't visualize 40 giraffes. However, I can visualize the volume of a house or the weight of an SUV.
jul 31, 2025, 3:40 am • 0 0 • view
The study article refers to the amount of microplastics as equivalent to “a plastic spoon” not a tablespoon. So perhaps don’t jump on people about what they’re “against” when you don’t actually understand the reference.
jul 31, 2025, 3:40 am • 0 0 • view
I was saying it's a valid measurement just like a tablespoon but go off I guess
jul 31, 2025, 3:41 am • 0 0 • view
Yeah. That study had all kinds of problems — including that they almost certainly did their math wrong. It’s a problem not just with this study, but with all science reporting by unscientific journalists in the attention economy age. www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/s...
jul 31, 2025, 1:02 am • 17 4 • view
I showed someone the math one time for being equivalent to the mass of a pencil and it was astounding how hilarious the results were. We would all be dead.
jul 31, 2025, 4:40 pm • 1 0 • view
*joker pencil trick dot gif*
jul 31, 2025, 4:57 pm • 1 0 • view
You'd think Spiders Georg would've solved everyone buying those sort of "facts".
jul 31, 2025, 12:57 am • 3 0 • view
Ow! My eye!
jul 31, 2025, 6:17 am • 0 0 • view
Pretty sure I don't have room for that much microplastic in my brain with all that Gen-X lead in it.
jul 31, 2025, 1:44 am • 0 0 • view
No, the fact holds up because it's not in the 10% of the brain we use. Also gets cleaned out by some of the spiders we swallow.
jul 31, 2025, 1:24 am • 5 0 • view
"But if no plastic, why called neuroplasticity" >.<
jul 31, 2025, 1:05 am • 11 1 • view
You win 1 Internet today Enjoy
jul 31, 2025, 2:25 am • 3 0 • view
Baha, whooo!! Tysvm <3
jul 31, 2025, 2:28 am • 3 0 • view
Hey. Who said that?
jul 31, 2025, 5:39 am • 0 0 • view
www.google.com/search?q=spo...
jul 31, 2025, 5:40 am • 0 0 • view
Not me being snotty but rather, a lot of articles
jul 31, 2025, 5:41 am • 0 0 • view
Welp. My joke fell flat.
jul 31, 2025, 5:44 am • 1 0 • view
Oh, I'm terribly literal, my bad!
jul 31, 2025, 5:46 am • 1 0 • view
It would explain a lot, especially bad if the spoon in there is also plastic!
jul 31, 2025, 6:00 am • 0 0 • view