"Scientists shocked to find lab gloves may be skewing microplastics data
Mar 29, 2026 at 8:25 PM
A University of Michigan study suggests that the nitrile and latex gloves scientists commonly use could be causing microplastics levels to appear higher than they actually are.

Researchers found that these gloves can unintentionally transfer particles onto lab tools used to analyze air, water, and other environmental samples. The contamination comes from stearates, which are not plastics but can closely resemble them during testing. Because of this, scientists may be detecting particles that are not true microplastics. To reduce this issue, U-M researchers Madeline Clough and Anne McNeil recommend using cleanroom gloves, which release far fewer particles"

#science

(water filters may also be injecting microplastics into experiments.) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260329222938.htm

When you are in a hurry and don't notice your ISO is set to 5000 in broad daylight... lean into it. Burn the f*** out of the bottom and let the glare fly.

#photography #MonochromeMonday

Newly arrived on the fediverse and wondering the difference between here and X?
Ask what the plural is of octopus.

On X this will result in a vicious argument whether it is octopuses or octopi.

Here there will be polite discussion on when one should use octopuses and when octopodes, followed by a discursion about classical Greek plurals.

1/2

"After months of heated debate and previous attempts to restrict the use of large language models on Wikipedia, on March 20 volunteer editors accepted a new policy that prohibits using them to create articles for the online encyclopedia.

The new policy, which was accepted in an overwhelming 40 to 2 vote among editors, allows editors to use LLMs to suggest basic copyedits to their own writing, which can be incorporated into the article or rewritten after human review if the LLM doesn’t generate entirely new content on its own."

https://www.404media.co/wikipedia-bans-ai-generated-content/