microplastics

Meet Isabella Garry, the Eden Prairie seventh-grader who tested plant-based gels in simulated stomach fluid and found psyllium could remove up to 93.3% of microplastics within 60 minutes

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Meet Isabella Garry, the Eden Prairie seventh-grader who tested plant-based gels in simulated stomach fluid and found psyllium could remove up to 93.3% of microplastics within 60 minutes

Isabella GarryPhoto: Society for Science When Isabella Garry learned that microplastics can enter the human body through food, water and the air, she began looking for a solution that went beyond simply avoiding plastic. The seventh-grader from Central Middle School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, tested natural plant compounds in a laboratory-made stomach environment to see … Read more

Shailene Woodley joined scientists in the Sargasso Sea to collect microplastics; why this remote Atlantic ecosystem became a real-world pollution laboratory

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Shailene Woodley joined scientists in the Sargasso Sea to collect microplastics; why this remote Atlantic ecosystem became a real-world pollution laboratory

PC: TIME/National Geographic Far from the beaches and busy coastlines where plastic pollution is easiest to see, scientists found evidence of a much less visible problem in the Sargasso Sea. During a 2019 Greenpeace expedition, actress Shailene Woodley joined researchers collecting samples from the remote North Atlantic ecosystem, where floating Sargassum provides habitat for marine … Read more

In 2026, researchers turned water-treatment waste into a filter for microplastics; real-water tests removed 86.9% to 97.1% of the particles

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In 2026, researchers turned water-treatment waste into a filter for microplastics; real-water tests removed 86.9% to 97.1% of the particles

Representative Image (AI-generated) Microplastics are now found across aquatic environments, creating a difficult challenge for water-treatment systems that must remove tiny plastic particles without generating more waste. A new approach investigated in 2026 takes an unusual route: instead of treating water-treatment waste as something that simply needs to be discarded, researchers turned it into a … Read more