The difference in plastic quantities surprised him, but his team found another concerning trend, too. Cells in the plaque with lots of plastic showed different gene activity than those with low plastic. In the high-plastic environment, one group of immune cells had switched off a gene that's associated with turning off inflammation. Clark's team also found genetic differences in a group of stem cells thought to help prevent heart attacks and strokes by reducing inflammation and stabilizing plaque. "Could it be that microplastics are somehow altering their gene expression?" Clark said.

Well thats certainly concerning!

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Don't worry. I'm sure we can keep throwing billions of spanners into billions of engines continuously without consequence.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

We need a plastic magnet to save us all. WTF is this timeline.

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago

Non-Harambe 23-C

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Everyone of us has the equivalent of a plastic spoon in the brain. Humanity is finished. Not a big loss, all things considered.

[–] electricyarn@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Presumably there is that amount of plastic in all the creatures on earth as well. Remember that pkastics are petrol products. We can save the earth by simply removing the fossil fuel industry entirely.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

We kind of have that:

https://www.sciencealert.com/theres-a-surprisingly-simple-way-to-remove-microplastics-from-drinking-water

The problem is that you can't exactly boil solid food, and its energy intensive. But at least it's something.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Well that's not a magnet though, meaning you can't attract it away from being mixed in with other particulate matter. You can with Iron, for example.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think we may have FOUND the microplastics magnet. Plaques in our bloodstreams from the article. They were finding MUCH higher concentrations of microplastics in the plaques. My laymen guess is that the plaques themselves are more "sticky?" to microplastics and collect them. The only downside right now is that means we stroke out when the "magnet" gets full.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 4 points 2 days ago

Magnets: How do they-HRNGH!!

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago

Hence why I said kind of.

[–] noctivius@lemm.ee 8 points 2 days ago

DRILL BABY DRILL

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

So you're saying plastic killed the Pope?