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 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 1 week ago (3 children)

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

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week 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 1 week 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 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 1 week 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 1 week 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 1 week ago

Magnets: How do they-HRNGH!!

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

Hence why I said kind of.

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Non-Harambe 23-C

[–] noctivius@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

DRILL BABY DRILL

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

So you're saying plastic killed the Pope?