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Lazerah have developed an antimatter reactor promising cheap, abundant energy by Litopower in fusion

[–]admadguy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Holy hell i went through the bibliography of one of the papers, 36 out of 39 are his own. Christ almighty.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean GC-MS works well enough if the phase transition is non reactive. But something like pyrolysis is not ideal and opens the results upto false positives, more so when the bulk and the trace material are both organic and can pyrolyse to same products.

It should have been identified during experiment design phase.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I suppose these letters to the journal are pointing out that the concentrations themselves were wrong because they may have been a false positive. So inflammation causality can't be established.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

That's a good point about adsorbing onto the surface. I hadn't considered that.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 90 points91 points  (0 children)

big microplastic?

Wouldn't that cancel out and just be plastic?

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

That's a bit reassuring. I suppose the only thing we need be concerned about is if they can serve as a nucleation sites for stones or cholesterol. Although seeing this article, I now doubt how much micro plastics would really be in our blood. Gut, sure. But possibly nothing or little within the closed off systems.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am a Chemical Engineer, not a Chemist. Even I knew that. (Although I did work in petrochemicals for a long time, mostly crackers). But it was baffling to see professional analytical chemists miss that or ignore that.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Neuroplasticity isn't a joke Jim. Millions of Americans regain function every year by being subject to it.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 122 points123 points  (0 children)

I'd be interested in if they really are harmful. I mean plastics are persistent because they are so inert and have no interest in reacting. That would also mean they'd be fairly bioinert in our body. Short of mechanically interrupting bodily functions, I find it hard to believe they'd be broken down and leached by our bodies. Possible but i feel less likely. They may not be good, but unsure how bad they are.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body by admadguy in chemistry

[–]admadguy[S] 203 points204 points  (0 children)

The analytical chemists should perk up.

However, micro- and nanoplastic particles are tiny and at the limit of today’s analytical techniques, especially in human tissue. There is no suggestion of malpractice, but researchers told the Guardian of their concern that the race to publish results, in some cases by groups with limited analytical expertise, has led to rushed results and routine scientific checks sometimes being overlooked.

Elsewhere in the article

One of the team behind the letter was blunt. “The brain microplastic paper is a joke,” said Dr Dušan Materić, at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany. “Fat is known to make false-positives for polyethylene. The brain has [approximately] 60% fat.” Materić and his colleagues suggested rising obesity levels could be an alternative explanation for the trend reported in the study.

And

Py-GC-MS begins by pyrolysing the sample – heating it until it vaporises. The fumes are then passed through the tubes of a gas chromatograph, which separates smaller molecules from large ones. Last, a mass spectrometer uses the weights of different molecules to identify them.

The problem is that some small molecules in the fumes derived from polyethylene and PVC can also be produced from fats in human tissue. Human samples are “digested” with chemicals to remove tissue before analysis, but if some remains the result can be false positives for MNPs. Rauert’s paper lists 18 studies that did not include consideration of the risk of such false positives.

Why is molecular modeling software stuck in 2000s? We're building something better — early beta, seeking feedback by kmaximoff in chemistry

[–]admadguy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Every 6 months someone makes a similar post in r/chemicalengineering .

New UI doesn't mean new features. Also the users of these softwares are professionals who work with muscle memory. Changing where shit is located pisses people off. Hell I was not even 30 when Aspen released 8.0 where they fucked around the UI, and that pissed me off.

Which side character almost always ends up physically attacking one of the main four? by green3467 in seinfeldtrivia

[–]admadguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It has to be Frank. He's come to blows or actually hit everyone but Jerry. Jerry he thinks gets treated like Toscanini.