With the amount of microplastics we're carrying around in pretty much every tissue in our bodies, is our weight measurably different as a result?
With the amount of microplastics we're carrying around in pretty much every tissue in our bodies, is our weight measurably different as a result?
If it is, I assume it's measured in thousandths of a gram or something, but are we all nevertheless a wee bit heavier than we ought to be?
I'm not sure if you caught this post earlier today, but they say there's enough plastic in your brain to make a credit card these days..
Assuming there is a brain of course. I'm sometimes doubting that in some people. Maybe it's all plastic up there.
Boomer take
Hurr durr everyone else is a moron but not meeeeeeeeeee
Holy shit, microplastics are defined as fragments smaller than 5mm????? I thought it's way smaller, 5mm is big enough to see with your naked eye!
I saw a meme earlier that said we had more than a credit card worth of plastic just in our brains so I'm going to say yes
are we all nevertheless a wee bit heavier than we ought to be?
Physics says, most plastic is lighter than water. Your body's overall density has decreased. That makes you a wee bit lighter.
Statistics says, sick people lose weight, and microplastic makes people sick. That makes our average weight even lighter.
This only applies if there's plastic INSTEAD of tissue. In case there's plastic IN ADDITION to tissue, then it makes you heavier, but it still makes you less dense, so you can float better in water.
This logic is flawed. If you stand on some scales and pick up a credit card, the scale will measure you are one credit card heavier. You don't get lighter by adding mass (at least when that mass is also denser then air). And what evidence is there that this plastic in our bodies is additional mass or replaced mass? That is the assumption your logic is based on.
Maybe, but probably not in a noticeable amount that would visibly effect your weight on any scale that isnt accurate to a significat figure only scientists in a lab would care about.
Yes. The global obesity epidemic? It's all plastic.