In this episode, Madi Wayt sumarizes highlights from the October 2019 Oxford Science Cafe talk by Dr. James Cizdziel from the UM department of chemistry and biochemistry.

Plastics are everywhere! We are living in an age of plastics, much like  the Bronze and Iron Ages. Whereas plastics are cheap and useful, they  are also carelessly   discarded and mismanaged. Unfortunately, this has resulted in widespread plastic pollution, including the infamous ocean  garbage patches. Worse, plastics degrade by UV-radiation, microorganisms, and mechanical action (e.g. waves), yielding smaller and smaller particles called micro- and nano-plastics. These small plastic particles accumulate in the food chain and have even been detected in rain! Dr. Cizdziel introduces microplastics as an emerging global pollutant, discuss its sources and impacts. What can we do to save our oceans from this invisible threat?

Narrated and Edited by Madi Wayt.