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5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scientists raise red flag over effects of microscopic threat to vital organs: 'A potential health risk'
Scientists raise red flag over effects of microscopic threat to vital organs: 'A potential health risk' A new study on mice has highlighted the damage that ingested microplastics can cause to different organs. What's happening? Researchers assessed the toxicity of polystyrene microplastics to the gut and mammary glands in subject mice, according to the study, published in the journal Science of Food. The scientists found that the tiny plastic particles accumulated in various tissues, causing significant harm to the gut and mammary glands. Specifically, they found that microplastics could "disrupt the intestinal barrier" and lead to inflammation of the colon and an imbalance of the gut microbiome. They also observed that microplastics can accumulate in mammary tissue, causing inflammatory damage there, among other effects. "These findings indicate that ingestion of microplastics poses a potential health risk," the authors stated. "Further control of microplastics contamination in food is needed to promote public health and wellness." Why are microplastics concerning? The study added to a growing understanding and body of research about the health impacts of microplastics. For instance, a previous experiment on pigs discovered that microplastic exposure can trigger an inflammatory response in the enteric nervous system, which affects functions including immune responses. The effects of microplastics on human health are still being explored. But other studies have linked microplastic exposure to health problems such as cancer, dementia, and impaired blood flow in the brain. What's being done about microplastics? Though microplastics pollute soil, water, food, and air, scientists are discovering new ways to remove them from our environment. For instance, one team found a way to get them out of soil by using a type of processed farm waste. You can help reduce the amount of microplastics entering the environment, and reduce your own exposure, by opting for plastic-free alternatives to everyday products. Choose reusable bottles and containers instead of single-use varieties, for instance. Do you worry about having toxic forever chemicals in your home? Majorly Sometimes Not really I don't know enough about them Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Earth's rotation is speeding up today for the 3rd and final time this summer
Aug. 5 will be one of the shortest days of the year — by 1.25 milliseconds. Planet Earth is spinning a little faster today — resulting in one of the shortest days of the year. But the change will be so minuscule you won't even notice. Several milliseconds will be shaved off of the 24 hours it takes for Earth to complete a full rotation on July 9, July 22 and Aug. 5 — we're talking even less time than the blink of an eye. Why is Earth's rotation speed changing? Planet Earth is our timekeeper, but it's not perfect. It takes our planet 24 hours — one day — to complete one full rotation on its axis, which breaks down to 86,400 seconds. But Earth's rotation could change by a millisecond (.001 seconds) or two every day. The orbit of the moon can have an effect on how fast the Earth spins around. 'Our planet spins quicker when the moon's position is far to the north or south of Earth's equator,' according to 'Earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal forces, subterranean geology, and many other mechanisms can cause the planet's rotation to slow down or speed up, and those micro-adjustments can trend over time,' Popular Mechanics reported. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 accelerated Earth's rotation, shortening the length of the standard 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds (0.0018 milliseconds). These tiny day-to-day fluctuations in the Earth's spin speed began to be measured in the 1950s with atomic clocks. Any number above or below the standard 86,400 seconds is called the length of day (LOD). The shortest day recorded was on July 5, 2024, when Earth completed its full rotation 1.66 milliseconds faster than the standard 86,400 seconds. When will this happen? There are a total of three days this summer when the moon will be around its furthest distance from Earth's equator, resulting in a minuscule increase in the Earth's spin speed. According to here are the lengths of those days: July 9: Day shortened by 1.23 milliseconds July 22: Day shortened by 1.36 milliseconds Aug. 5: Day is shortened by 1.25 milliseconds Wait — isn't there another day that's considered the shortest of the year? What feels like the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is known as the winter solstice, when Earth is tilted away from the sun at its maximum. This results in the fewest amount of daylight hours all year and occurs in mid-December. Will Earth always have 24 hours in a day? There weren't always 24 hours in a day. Researchers believe that in the Jurassic Period, it took Earth just 23 hours to make a complete rotation around its axis. Scientists have found that the length of a day on Earth is increasing each century by about 1.7 milliseconds. Over time, that adds up. Experts think that 200 million years from now, there will be 25 hours in a full day.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why could Aug. 5 be shorter than 24 hours?
If you seem not to be able to get through the to-do list on Aug. 5, you'll at least have an excuse. Tuesday is predicted to be one of the shortest days in the year, marking the latest time the Earth could see a day shortened by more than a millisecond. Scientists predict that Aug. 5 will be 1.34 milliseconds shorter, according to the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service and the U.S. Naval Observatory, published by TimeandDate. The millisecond mark has been broken a handful of times this year, with the most recent being July 11, according to the data published by TimeandDate. The predictions do not always come to pass, as July 22 had been predicted to be over a millisecond short, but the data revealed that only 0.87 milliseconds were shaved off, according to the Observatory's data. Earth takes 24 hours to complete a full rotation in a standard day, equal to exactly 86,400 seconds. Until 2020, the shortest day ever recorded by atomic clocks was 1.05 milliseconds short, meaning that Earth completed one daily rotation in 1.05 milliseconds less than the expected 86,400 seconds. "Since then, however, Earth has managed to shatter this old record every year by around half a millisecond," astrophysicist Graham Jones wrote for TimeAndDate. The shortest day recorded so far occurred July 5, 2024, when it came in 1.66 milliseconds short. The shortest day recorded this year was July 10, which came in 1.37 milliseconds short. Why is this happening? The Earth's rotation is influenced by the core and the atmosphere, according to Scientific American. The science magazine says that the core's spin has been slowing, though for unknown reasons, meaning that the rest of the planet must speed up to compensate. "The core is what changes how fast the Earth rotates on periods of 10 years to hundreds of years," Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the magazine. "The core has been slowing down for the last 50 years, and as a result, the Earth has been speeding up." Atmospheric forces cause the rotation rate of the Earth to speed up in the summer of the Northern Hemisphere, according to Scientific American. Forces caused by the moon also affect the rate the Earth spins. The magazine notes that on the geologic timescale, the Earth has been slowing, with the rotation taking half an hour less 70 million years ago. Will the sped-up day be noticeable? Of course, you're unlikely to notice such a minuscule difference in your standard 24-hour day. But scientists who track and operate atomic clocks may be facing a bit of a predicament. First introduced in the 1950s, atomic clocks replaced how scientists previously measured the length of a day by tracking the Earth's rotation and the position of the sun. The clocks are also capable of measuring in billionths of a second, or nanoseconds, which are synchronized globally to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). If the clocks are thrown off even a tiny amount, it could also throw off computers, servers, GPS signals, and other networks that rely on accurate times, David Gozzard, an experimental physicist at the University of Western Australia, told the Guardian. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Aug. 5 might be a short day, see how much time could be trimmed off Solve the daily Crossword
