My partner is working on a sub-topic, removing microplastics from laundry discharge water, and it is a huge and still undefined challenge. There is no magic pill.
Even core definitions such as "what are microplastics" are under review and development. And then there's nanoplastics.
For those wanting an introduction to the topic, don't go with media, start reviewing papers. The top cited papers clearly outline how all-encompassing and complex the challenge is.
Much better way of addressing a lot of the microplastics problem IMHO. Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres" and then start requiring washing machine OEMs to put replaceable filters on the discharge.
It's really inspiring to see what real engineering is. Makes me feel like a sell-out massaging Skinner boxes.
In the laundry problem they are dealing with both the extreme challenge of physical objects (connecting the right pump to the right controller, battling liquid pressure loss, unreliable reference washing machine performance and water quality ), abstract concepts ("what shall be identified as microplastics?" "is the reference wash cycle in any way relevant to how plastic clothing sheds when worn by humans?" "how shall the conflicting measurement methods from literature be addressed / unified?") and project constraints. To say nothing about filter clogging.
And it's a great feeling to know that your work is fundamentally relevant, i see that even when they hit their lows.
Really making me re-consider my career path.
Already done in the UK and US.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/the-best-face-and-bo...
See also https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12269 https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/mic...
https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2020/03/battle-on-t...
I would think products for industrial, commercial, and residential micro plastics removal would be more useful than for a specific problem, but also that waste treatment plants and water runoff must scrub their outputs of environmental contaminants before discharging them into waterways.
It's just a very typical clickbait pattern.
"Teen builds online brokerage platform" or "Teen builds bike that goes 100mph" does not cause the same negative anticipation.
what 14? That's late indeed. The story has to be preschool to be awe-worthy.
For instance: "12/13y old writes the shortest assembly routine to move the head of the floppy drive of Apple II", doesn't sound grounbreaking - even if the code was better/shorter than DOS, itself. Solving massive world problems is a totally different scale.
The doubt isn't over whether a teen can do 'basic chemistry', it's whether they've 'invented' something; whether they've done anything that someone who doesn't know them/their family/their school and isn't considering their application for something needs to care about. It's whether this is (or was a while before the media got it) news or exciting or a citation for an adult researcher working in the field.
In this example, how much vegetable oils and magnetite powder you need per cubic meter of water?
from 2013 article [1], though it seems not practical [2]:
"W2Plastics has shown the viability of magnetic density separation, where flakes of shredded plastic such as polyethylene or polypropylene are mixed into a magnetic fluid made by adding iron oxide to water."
I am not sure which one is better to show kids they discovered something existing, or praise them like this
[1] https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/magnetic-attraction-recy...
[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/131208-sorting-plastic-w...
Edit: (*Scottish!): Ironically, he’s an old Irish man :p
(not affilated with pepsi, I do not consume sugar-y soft drinks)
It sells ads to eyeballs is all the so-called journalists and editors care about.
The point of news is eyeballs, not truth.
The majority are so bad that they have reduced their consumers ability to read to the point where they can't understand the difference between few and none.