Headlines are screaming that we have tons of microplastics in our brains — the equivalent of an entire plastic spoon. OK, that sounds terrifying, but is it true? We talk to chemist Prof. Oliver Jones. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/PlasticSpoonBrain In this episode, we cover: (00:00) A plastic spoon’s worth of microplastics?! (05:21) Something dodgy here? (17:39) So how much plastic is in our bodies, really? This episode was produced by Rose Rimler, with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, Meryl Horn, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Fact checking by San Lemonick. Music written by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, So Wylie, Bumi Hidaka, and Bobby Lord. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to for this episode, including Dr. Roger Kuhlman, Prof. Martin Wagner, Dr. Elke Fischer, Dr. Marie-France Dignac, and Rachel Kozloski. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What sparked the conversation about plastic in our brains?
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. So there are a lot of scientific papers out there that you will never read and that I will never read, and only nerds really know about them. But every now and then, there is a scientific paper that will break out of the ivory tower and go viral.
You see it all over the news, it's all over your feed, and sometimes these papers make these very extraordinary claims. that, I don't know, maybe sound a touch dodgy. It's hard to know what to make of them. And that is where our brand new segment, Viral Papers, comes in. And here with our very first viral paper is Science vs. Senior Producer, Rose Rimbler.
Hi, Rose. Hi, Wendy. I also have the honor of debuting the jingle for this new type of episode, which I know you had asked our very talented sound engineer to mix up a jingle. He sent it to me, and I have it here for you. Yes!
So I was thinking the jingle could be something like... Viral papers, viral papers. They're everywhere, but something's gone wrong.
Oh, that was just a suggestion. I didn't think it was going to be the... A good idea is a good idea, you know?
You can't just throw out a great melody like that. Or vocal performance.
I thought it was a green light brainstorm session.
Oh, well, I hope everyone's excited. They should be excited. because today we're gonna talk about a paper that makes a very extraordinary claim. I'm just gonna play you some of the headlines here.
A new study has found an alarming amount of plastic in our brains.
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Chapter 2: Why should we be skeptical of viral scientific papers?
So of course you remember. The thing is that when you burn your sample up, you've changed its identity from what it was originally. So what was initially polyethylene, for example, would now be a handful of different molecules. And the problem is there are other materials that can break down into those same molecules when they're burned. So it's...
It's kind of like if you had a bunch of baked goods, muffins, loaves, soufflés, I don't know. Anyway, and then you burnt them all up and put them through your pyrolysis spectrometer, whatever. And then on the line, it all just looked like flour or something.
Yeah, it's like if you were to see a line for flour and you're like, aha, I know this was a souffle. You're like, well, no, it could have come from something else. It could have come from the pie or something. Yeah, I guess I'm going with it. So I'm approving that analogy. Excellent. And bringing us back to plastics. Yes, yes. So here's what the polyethylene could get mistaken for.
That's kind of a big problem. Fat. And here's Oliver.
The fingerprint of fats is very similar to the fingerprint of polyethylene. They look so similar that it's quite easy to mistake one for the other.
Oh, this is a big deal because the brain is full of fat. Exactly.
The brain is very fatty. Uh-huh. That feels like a huge problem. So I asked Oliver, could this supposed plastic spoon in our brains just be normal human fat?
Yes. I think the majority of it. Wow. What's more likely, that I actually have a plastic spoon's worth of plastic in my brain, or there's a measurement issue from a technique that I know has issues with measuring plastics?
I mean, dang. That's a big problem, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that headline could have just been... human fat in the brain.
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