What are microplastics? Are they dangerous?
Recent studies linking the particles to negative health effects have left many worried about how to avoid the flecks of pollution altogether.
Microplastics are tiny plastic pieces less than five millimeters long, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA warns the slivers of plastic have become 'pervasive in natural and built environments' and are found in every ecosystem on the planet.
Whether you're trekking the Antarctic tundra or traipsing in a vast rainforest, there are small specs of plastic embedded in the environment's water, soil, plants — and the creatures that live there.
Yes, even humans. A University of New Mexico Health Sciences study released in February found the level of microplastics in human brains has increased by 50% over the past eight years.
Lead researcher and toxicologist Matthew Campen said in a news release that most microplastics are ingested through food, especially meat bought at grocery stores.
High levels of microplastics in human brains are increasing: Study
The spread of microplastics has something to do with the earth's massive plastic pollution problem. A September 2024 study published in Nature established that the world pumps out 57 million tons of plastic pollution each year, with two-thirds of it coming from the Global South.
With that much plastic sitting around, improperly disposing of the material can just spread microplastics —and their even tinier counterparts, nanoplastics — farther across the globe, researchers said.
The verdict is out.
While it's generally accepted that microplastic build up is likely bad for humans, Nature cautions that more rigorous research is needed to determine the true effects of the particles, as current studies often have small sample sizes and face methodical limitations.
Several studies this year have looked at how prevalent microplastics are in our drinking water and in people's tissue, such as hearts, brains and testicles, with doctors and scientists still not quite sure what it means in terms of human health threats.
Sisters battle early Alzheimer's, living life to the fullest
Some research has linked microplastics to heart disease or Alzheimer's and dementia, including the aforementioned University of New Mexico Health Sciences study.
It found that people with dementia had up to 10 times more plastic in their brains: 'These results highlight a critical need to better understand the routes of exposure, uptake and clearance pathways and potential health consequences of plastics in human tissues, particularly in the brain.'
Researchers have also found evidence of microplastics in people's bloodstreams.
There's no sure-fire way to remove microplastics from the body. Your liver and kidneys likely help excrete some of it through urine and feces, though studies show that microplastics often linger on in bodies.
To avoid consuming more, it's best to change your everyday practices through dietary and lifestyle means.
Though microplastics are practically unavoidable in the modern day, consciously reducing your plastic use and protein intake could help lessen your chances of contact.
That means swapping out plastic Tupperware, water bottles and utensils. If you have to stick with your plastic fare, make sure to avoid microwaving it, said Tracey Woodruff, PhD, a UC San Francisco obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences professor.
'Operation Stork Speed': FDA, HHS target baby formula contamination
Woodruff explained to NewsNation that 'heat makes plastic release harmful chemicals like BPA.'
She also recommends purchasing organic foods to avoid pesticide exposure and reducing red meat in your diet. The Common Earth suggests buying seafood that is 'sustainably sourced' and opting to eat smaller fish rather than bigger catches — as larger fish tend to accumulate more microplastics.
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating the return to plastic straws — declaring that paper ones 'don't work.'
'Straws are just the beginning,' Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, said in a statement following the order. ''Back to Plastic' is a movement we should all get behind.'
NewsNation's Ashley N. Soriano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fossils show two types of ancient human ancestors lived at the same place and time. One was possibly an unknown species
Ancient, fossilized teeth, uncovered during a decades-long archaeology project in northeastern Ethiopia, indicate that two different kinds of hominins, or human ancestors, lived in the same place between 2.6 million and 2.8 million years ago — and one of them may be a previously unknown species. The discovery provides a new glimpse into the complex web of human evolution. Ten of the teeth, found between 2018 and 2020, belong to the genus Australopithecus, an ancient human relative. Meanwhile, three teeth, found in 2015, belong to the genus Homo, which includes modern humans, or Homo sapiens. The results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Such an overlapping of two hominins in the fossil record is rare, which had previously led scientists to believe that Homo appeared after Australopithecus, rather than the two being contemporaries. Australopithecus species walked upright much like modern humans, but had relatively small brains, closer in size to those of apes. The emergence of Homo species, with their larger brains, is easy for people today to view as some sort of evolutionary upgrade on a path to modern humanity. But the coexistence of the two demonstrates that hominins developed, and lived, in multiple varieties at once. 'This new research shows that the image many of us have in our minds of an ape to a Neanderthal to a modern human is not correct — evolution doesn't work like that,' said study coauthor Kaye Reed, research scientist and president's professor emerita at the Institute of Human Origins and emeritus professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, via email. 'Here we have two hominin species that are together. And human evolution is not linear, it's a bushy tree, there are life forms that go extinct.' Since 2002, Reed has been a codirector of the Ledi-Geraru Research Project, which is focused, in part, on searching for evidence of early Homo species. In 2015, the team announced the discovery of the oldest known Homo jawbone at 2.8 million years old. It has also searched for later evidence of Australopithecus afarensis, which first appeared 3.9 million years ago, but there is no sign of these ancient human relatives in the fossil record after 2.95 million years ago — suggesting they went extinct before Homo's first appearance. Australopithecus afarensis is best represented by the famed fossilized remains of Lucy, discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. Lucy was shorter than an average human, reaching about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in height, had an apelike face and a brain about one-third the size of a human brain. Her fossil showcased a mixture of humanlike and apelike traits and provided proof that ancient human relatives walked upright 3.2 million years ago. When the team discovered the Australopithecus teeth during two separate digs in 2018 and 2020, it compared them with species such as afarensis and another hominin group known as garhi, but they didn't match up. Instead, the scientists believe the teeth belong to a previously unknown species of Australopithecus that walked the Earth after Lucy — and alongside an early Homo species. 'Once we found Homo, I thought that was all we would find, and then one day on survey, we found the Australopithecus teeth,' Reed said. 'What is most important, is that it shows again, that human evolution is not linear. There were species that went extinct; some were better adapted than others, and others interbred with us — we know this for Neanderthals for sure. So anytime that we have another piece to the puzzle of where we came from, it is important.' Cracks in Earth's surface The teeth were found in Ethiopia's Afar region, a key place for researchers seeking answers about human evolution. A variety of preserved fossils have been found there as well as some of the earliest stone tools, Reed said. The Afar region is an active rifting environment — the tectonic plates beneath its earth are actively pulling apart and exposing older layers of sediment that shed light on almost 5 million years of evolution, Reed said. 'The continent is quite literally unzipping there, which creates a lot of volcanism and tectonics,' said study coauthor Christopher Campisano, associate director and associate professor at the Institute of Human Origins and associate professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State, in a video the school released. 'At 2 1⁄2, 3 million years ago, these volcanoes spewed out ash that contain crystals called feldspars that allow us to date the eruptions that were happening on the landscape when they're deposited.' The Australopithecus teeth documented in the new study were dated to 2.63 million years ago, while the Homo teeth are from 2.59 million and 2.78 million years ago. But the team is cautious about identifying a species for any of the teeth until it has more data and more fossils. 'We know what the teeth and mandible of the earliest Homo look like, but that's it,' said Brian Villmoare, lead study author and associate professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in a statement. 'This emphasizes the critical importance of finding additional fossils to understand the differences between Australopithecus and Homo, and potentially how they were able to overlap in the fossil record at the same location.' The Australopithecus teeth broadly resembled those of the afarensis species in contour and the size of the molars, but features of the cusps and canine teeth had not been previously seen in afarensis or garhi teeth, Villmoare said. The teeth were also different in shape than those of any Homo species, or of the ancient human relative Paranthropus, known for its large teeth and chewing muscles. 'Obviously these are only teeth,' Villmoare said, 'but we are continuing field work in the hopes of recovering other parts of the anatomy that might increase resolution on the taxonomy.' Even just finding the teeth was a complicated task, according to Campisano. 'You're looking at little teeth, quite literally, individual teeth that look just like a lot of other of the little pebbles spread on the landscape,' he said in the video. 'And so, we have a great team of local Afars that are excellent fossil hunters. They've seen these things their entire lives walking around the landscape.' A blip for evolution The new study is important because it provides insight into a time frame from 3 million to 2 million years ago, a mysterious period in human evolutionary studies, said Dr. Stephanie Melillo, paleoanthropologist and assistant professor at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania. Melillo was not involved in this research, but she has participated in the Woranso-Mille Paleontological Research Project in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia. Part of the problem in learning about this stretch of prehistory is how ancient layers of dirt were deposited over the course of history in eastern Africa. 'Erosion in rivers and lakes were at a low level and only a little bit of dirt was deposited in the Afar,' Melillo wrote in an email. 'That deposited dirt contains the fossils — of our ancestors and all the animals that lived with us. When there is little deposition, there are few fossils.' A key feature helping archaeologists to understand humanity's evolution are structural basins, or 'bowls' on Earth's surface that naturally collect layers of sediment better than the surrounding landscape does — like the Turkana Basin stretching across southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, Melillo said. Previous research has found evidence to suggest that Homo and Paranthropus coexisted there 1.5 million years ago. The new study focuses on the Afar Depression, a basin to the north of the Turkana. 'This contribution by Villmoare and colleagues demonstrates that in the Afar there was also some other species around with Homo — but it isn't Paranthropus,' Melillo said. 'Instead, they identify this 'non-Homo' genus as Australopithecus. They do a very convincing job of demonstrating why the new fossils are not Paranthropus.' The study adds to growing evidence that Australopithecus was not roaming the Afar Depression alone, she said. A mysterious coexistence When Australopithecus and Homo were alive, the Afar Region, now mostly a semidesert, had much more seasonal variation in rainfall than it does today, Reed said. Millions of years ago, the environment there was still dominated by a dry season, but it was interrupted by a brief wet season. Rivers that carried water across the landscape existed for only part of the year. Few trees grew near the river, and the environment nearby was largely wetlands and grasslands. 'We have a fossil giraffe species that was eating grass, which probably indicates they were stressed as they eat trees and bushes almost every place else,' Reed said. 'Were the hominins eating the same thing? We are trying to find out by examining isotopes in their teeth and microscopic scratches on their teeth.' Understanding whether or not Homo and Australopithecus had the same food sources could paint a portrait of how our ancient ancestors shared or competed for resources, Reed said. The team also wants to try to identify which hominin made the stone tools found at the site. At the moment it's impossible to tell exactly how the two hominins coexisted, but Reed said she is hoping that future findings will provide more answers. 'Whenever you have an exciting discovery, if you're a paleontologist, you always know that you need more information,' Reed said. 'You need more fossils. More fossils will help us tell the story of what happened to our ancestors a long time ago — but because we're the survivors we know that it happened to us.' Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
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Wife Shares 1 Thing She, Husband Refuse to Give Up After He's Diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer's at 55 (Exclusive)
Despite a devastating Alzheimer's diagnosis, one couple refuses to give up on their love for adventure and each other NEED TO KNOW Anthony and Karen Sandone are avid travelers who tied the knot in Punta Cana in June 2009 In 2023, Anthony was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's In the last two years, Anthony's condition has progressed "to moderate/severe," but that hasn't stopped them from enjoying time together abroad What began as occasional forgetfulness slowly turned into persistent memory and language issues that couldn't be ignored for Anthony Sandone. Concerned, Sandone and his wife, Karen, began seeking answers in March 2022, visiting numerous doctors in search of an explanation. Due to Anthony's age and overall good health, dementia wasn't initially suspected, and the process of ruling out other conditions was long and emotionally exhausting. By May 2023, Anthony was forced to retire from his 35-year career in chemical sales due to his progressing symptoms. Four months later, on Sept. 7, 2023, their suspicions were confirmed. Anthony was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at just 55 years old – changing their life forever. Anthony, now 57, lives with a form of the disease called primary progressive aphasia, which severely affects his ability to speak and understand language. Once the picture of vitality – he, a former collegiate athlete, and Karen, a former Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader – truly believed they would be the couple to ride out the disease until there was a cure. They even enlisted support from Mano Wellness, a health coaching platform, to help Anthony maintain his fitness, diet, and nutrition. But Alzheimer's had other plans. 'In less than two years, Anthony's condition has progressed from mild/moderate to moderate/severe and there is no one in control of this progression but Alzheimer's,' Karen, 58, tells PEOPLE exclusively. Conversations, remembering names, and even everyday tasks like using a phone or remote control are a struggle. Following instructions is difficult, so Karen limits his tasks and ensures those around him are patient and help guide him through the confusion. 'It was heartbreaking to tell Anthony he could no longer drive,' Karen recalls of a turning point in November 2024. 'A moment that made him feel like everything was being taken from him.' As his condition progressed, so did the impact on their blended family of six adult children. Anthony struggles with short-term memory, making unfamiliar places and sudden changes to his routine especially difficult and stressful. He can no longer use electronic devices like phones, so Karen has taken on full responsibility for managing everything – appointments, finances, and household needs – while also working full-time and serving as his primary caregiver. While he once handled all their travel planning, from booking flights to organizing cruise itineraries, it's been an emotional adjustment for Karen to take on the extra tasks. 'The little things,' she says, are what she misses most – things she realizes she once took for granted and that are no longer possible for him. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Yet despite these challenges, Karen and Anthony have made a conscious choice not to let the disease stop them from living. Travel, a passion they've shared for years, especially after becoming empty nesters, continues to be a cornerstone of their time together. Their favorite destinations include Puerto Vallarta, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and their most unforgettable trips – Italy and Greece. Cruises, however, have proven to be the most manageable type of travel given Anthony's current needs. 'He did really well on the most recent cruise and the crew team was very helpful,' Karen reveals. To make travel safer and more comfortable, Karen upgraded their cabin to an enclosed room with private amenities, informed the cruise staff of Anthony's condition, and equipped him with a dementia ID lanyard and a medical-alert Apple Watch. 'I was scared,' she admits. 'People discouraged me from going alone with Anthony.' Still, she stayed by his side the entire time. They laughed and soaked in every moment. Even with the repeated questions, the confusion, and the difficulty communicating, they found joy in the little things that matter most: simply being together. 'I do not know if that was our last trip together. But I have no regrets,' she tells PEOPLE. Karen refuses to let fear dictate their life choices. She almost canceled their most recent trip, but after being asked if she would regret not going, her answer was 'yes.' That moment shifted everything. Beyond their personal journey, the couple has become powerful advocates in their community. Karen recently represented the Alzheimer's Impact Movement (AIM) in Washington, D.C. as a Congressional Advocate, where she traveled to Capitol Hill to raise awareness about the importance of continued funding for Alzheimer's research and support. Her advice for other couples facing Alzheimer's is simple but profound: 'Meet your loved one where they are, in the moment.' Alzheimer's, without a doubt, has transformed their marriage. And although Anthony is no longer the person he once was, he is still Karen's husband and best friend, and the pair try to cherish every moment they share together. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
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a day ago
- Yahoo
Fossils show two types of ancient human ancestors lived at the same place and time. One was possibly an unknown species
Ancient, fossilized teeth, uncovered during a decades-long archaeology project in northeastern Ethiopia, indicate that two different kinds of hominins, or human ancestors, lived in the same place between 2.6 million and 2.8 million years ago — and one of them may be a previously unknown species. The discovery provides a new glimpse into the complex web of human evolution. Ten of the teeth, found between 2018 and 2020, belong to the genus Australopithecus, an ancient human relative. Meanwhile, three teeth, found in 2015, belong to the genus Homo, which includes modern humans, or Homo sapiens. The results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Such an overlapping of two hominins in the fossil record is rare, which had previously led scientists to believe that Homo appeared after Australopithecus, rather than the two being contemporaries. Australopithecus species walked upright much like modern humans, but had relatively small brains, closer in size to those of apes. The emergence of Homo species, with their larger brains, is easy for people today to view as some sort of evolutionary upgrade on a path to modern humanity. But the coexistence of the two demonstrates that hominins developed, and lived, in multiple varieties at once. 'This new research shows that the image many of us have in our minds of an ape to a Neanderthal to a modern human is not correct — evolution doesn't work like that,' said study coauthor Kaye Reed, research scientist and president's professor emerita at the Institute of Human Origins and emeritus professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, via email. 'Here we have two hominin species that are together. And human evolution is not linear, it's a bushy tree, there are life forms that go extinct.' Since 2002, Reed has been a codirector of the Ledi-Geraru Research Project, which is focused, in part, on searching for evidence of early Homo species. In 2015, the team announced the discovery of the oldest known Homo jawbone at 2.8 million years old. It has also searched for later evidence of Australopithecus afarensis, which first appeared 3.9 million years ago, but there is no sign of these ancient human relatives in the fossil record after 2.95 million years ago — suggesting they went extinct before Homo's first appearance. Australopithecus afarensis is best represented by the famed fossilized remains of Lucy, discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. Lucy was shorter than an average human, reaching about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in height, had an apelike face and a brain about one-third the size of a human brain. Her fossil showcased a mixture of humanlike and apelike traits and provided proof that ancient human relatives walked upright 3.2 million years ago. When the team discovered the Australopithecus teeth during two separate digs in 2018 and 2020, it compared them with species such as afarensis and another hominin group known as garhi, but they didn't match up. Instead, the scientists believe the teeth belong to a previously unknown species of Australopithecus that walked the Earth after Lucy — and alongside an early Homo species. 'Once we found Homo, I thought that was all we would find, and then one day on survey, we found the Australopithecus teeth,' Reed said. 'What is most important, is that it shows again, that human evolution is not linear. There were species that went extinct; some were better adapted than others, and others interbred with us — we know this for Neanderthals for sure. So anytime that we have another piece to the puzzle of where we came from, it is important.' Cracks in Earth's surface The teeth were found in Ethiopia's Afar region, a key place for researchers seeking answers about human evolution. A variety of preserved fossils have been found there as well as some of the earliest stone tools, Reed said. The Afar region is an active rifting environment — the tectonic plates beneath its earth are actively pulling apart and exposing older layers of sediment that shed light on almost 5 million years of evolution, Reed said. 'The continent is quite literally unzipping there, which creates a lot of volcanism and tectonics,' said study coauthor Christopher Campisano, associate director and associate professor at the Institute of Human Origins and associate professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State, in a video the school released. 'At 2 1⁄2, 3 million years ago, these volcanoes spewed out ash that contain crystals called feldspars that allow us to date the eruptions that were happening on the landscape when they're deposited.' The Australopithecus teeth documented in the new study were dated to 2.63 million years ago, while the Homo teeth are from 2.59 million and 2.78 million years ago. But the team is cautious about identifying a species for any of the teeth until it has more data and more fossils. 'We know what the teeth and mandible of the earliest Homo look like, but that's it,' said Brian Villmoare, lead study author and associate professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in a statement. 'This emphasizes the critical importance of finding additional fossils to understand the differences between Australopithecus and Homo, and potentially how they were able to overlap in the fossil record at the same location.' The Australopithecus teeth broadly resembled those of the afarensis species in contour and the size of the molars, but features of the cusps and canine teeth had not been previously seen in afarensis or garhi teeth, Villmoare said. The teeth were also different in shape than those of any Homo species, or of the ancient human relative Paranthropus, known for its large teeth and chewing muscles. 'Obviously these are only teeth,' Villmoare said, 'but we are continuing field work in the hopes of recovering other parts of the anatomy that might increase resolution on the taxonomy.' Even just finding the teeth was a complicated task, according to Campisano. 'You're looking at little teeth, quite literally, individual teeth that look just like a lot of other of the little pebbles spread on the landscape,' he said in the video. 'And so, we have a great team of local Afars that are excellent fossil hunters. They've seen these things their entire lives walking around the landscape.' A blip for evolution The new study is important because it provides insight into a time frame from 3 million to 2 million years ago, a mysterious period in human evolutionary studies, said Dr. Stephanie Melillo, paleoanthropologist and assistant professor at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania. Melillo was not involved in this research, but she has participated in the Woranso-Mille Paleontological Research Project in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia. Part of the problem in learning about this stretch of prehistory is how ancient layers of dirt were deposited over the course of history in eastern Africa. 'Erosion in rivers and lakes were at a low level and only a little bit of dirt was deposited in the Afar,' Melillo wrote in an email. 'That deposited dirt contains the fossils — of our ancestors and all the animals that lived with us. When there is little deposition, there are few fossils.' A key feature helping archaeologists to understand humanity's evolution are structural basins, or 'bowls' on Earth's surface that naturally collect layers of sediment better than the surrounding landscape does — like the Turkana Basin stretching across southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, Melillo said. Previous research has found evidence to suggest that Homo and Paranthropus coexisted there 1.5 million years ago. The new study focuses on the Afar Depression, a basin to the north of the Turkana. 'This contribution by Villmoare and colleagues demonstrates that in the Afar there was also some other species around with Homo — but it isn't Paranthropus,' Melillo said. 'Instead, they identify this 'non-Homo' genus as Australopithecus. They do a very convincing job of demonstrating why the new fossils are not Paranthropus.' The study adds to growing evidence that Australopithecus was not roaming the Afar Depression alone, she said. A mysterious coexistence When Australopithecus and Homo were alive, the Afar Region, now mostly a semidesert, had much more seasonal variation in rainfall than it does today, Reed said. Millions of years ago, the environment there was still dominated by a dry season, but it was interrupted by a brief wet season. Rivers that carried water across the landscape existed for only part of the year. Few trees grew near the river, and the environment nearby was largely wetlands and grasslands. 'We have a fossil giraffe species that was eating grass, which probably indicates they were stressed as they eat trees and bushes almost every place else,' Reed said. 'Were the hominins eating the same thing? We are trying to find out by examining isotopes in their teeth and microscopic scratches on their teeth.' Understanding whether or not Homo and Australopithecus had the same food sources could paint a portrait of how our ancient ancestors shared or competed for resources, Reed said. The team also wants to try to identify which hominin made the stone tools found at the site. At the moment it's impossible to tell exactly how the two hominins coexisted, but Reed said she is hoping that future findings will provide more answers. 'Whenever you have an exciting discovery, if you're a paleontologist, you always know that you need more information,' Reed said. 'You need more fossils. More fossils will help us tell the story of what happened to our ancestors a long time ago — but because we're the survivors we know that it happened to us.' Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Solve the daily Crossword
