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Polaris of Enlightenment

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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https://nordictimes.com/science/boiling-removes-microplastics-from-water/

Science

Boiling removes microplastics from water

Published 3 March 2024
– By Editorial Staff
In hard water containing 300 milligrams of CaCO3 per liter, up to 90% of microplastics were removed after boiling.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Boiling water can remove microplastics, according to a Chinese study. Boiling hard water could remove up to 90% of plastics.

The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, sampled water from the city of Guangzhou in China with so-called nano- and microplastics. Microplastics are plastic particles that are 5 millimeters or smaller and are found in everything from water to soil to air.

The samples were boiled for five minutes and allowed to cool, then the team measured the levels of free-floating plastic. Water can be “hard” or “soft,” the difference being the amount of calcium and magnesium ions it contains, the more of these the “harder” the water.

Boiling hard water, which is rich in minerals, produces a chalky substance called lime or calcium carbonate (CaCO3). This substance has been found to form crystal structures that encapsulate microplastics.

In hard water containing 300 milligrams of CaCO3 per liter, up to 90 percent of free-floating microplastics were removed after boiling; even at lower concentrations, such as 180 milligrams, up to 84 percent were removed. In soft water, with less than 60 milligrams per liter, about 25 percent of the plastics were removed.

Wide variation in water quality

A 2022 study tested the levels of microplastics in participants and found that 80% had them in their bodies. Very little is known about how microplastics affect health, but some studies have shown that they affect the bacteria in the stomach.

Asian countries have a long tradition of drinking cooled, boiled water because it is believed to be good for health, but this has not been scientifically tested. The researchers suggest that boiling water could be a simple but effective way to reduce unhealthy consumption of microplastics.

“Because the presence of NMPs (nano/microplastics) and water quality is uneven around the world, the effect of boiling water to reduce NMPs may vary from region to region”, the researchers wrote. “Nevertheless, our results have confirmed a very feasible strategy to reduce human exposure to NMPs and laid the groundwork for further investigations with a much larger number of samples”.

The study was conducted by researchers from Guangzhou Medical University in collaboration with Jinan University.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/science/young-adults-in-sweden-feel-shame-about-scrolling-habits/

Science

Young adults in Sweden feel shame about scrolling habits

Published 25 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Young adults in Sweden often feel ashamed of their mobile phone addiction and experience themselves to a high degree that they have an addictive behavior, according to research from the University of Gothenburg.

The study looked at how people between the ages of 20 and 35 view their own mobile phone use. It emerges that many consider themselves to be addicted and find it difficult to let go of their cell phones.

André Jansson, one of the researchers behind the study, believes that a form of culture has been created where it has become associated with social status to have the ability to reduce screen time and have control over their mobile phone use, something that many people feel they are unable to live up to in reality. Many also feel that they are wasting their time scrolling and ashamed that they cannot control it.

– When you can’t live up to that ideal, it creates a moral dissonance, you don’t use your smartphone in the way you would like to, Jansson told the state channel SVT.

 

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/painkillers-linked-to-increased-risk-propensity/

Science

Painkillers linked to increased risk propensity

Published 19 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
If large groups have an impaired perception of risk, this can have significant societal consequences.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Paracetamol can affect how we perceive risk, according to a US study. Students given painkillers before experiments were found to take greater risks than those given a placebo – something the researchers say may also have societal implications.

Paracetamol is an over-the-counter medication commonly taken for pain and fever and is available in the form of several different brands such as Alvedon, Orifarm and Apofri.

In the study, which was published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience in 2020, participants were asked to perform various experiments and then assessed based on their risk-taking. Over 500 university students took part in the experiments, with half of the group receiving a single dose of 1000 milligrams of acetaminophen before the experiments, and the rest receiving a placebo.

In one of the experiments, participants had to inflate balloons via a computer game, with each individual pump providing pretend money. The point was not to blow up the balloon with too much air as all the money earned would be lost. The results showed that the students taking paracetamol engaged in significantly more risk-taking during the exercise, compared to the more cautious placebo group.

Overall, those taking paracetamol inflated, and burst, their balloons more than the control group.

“Less negative emotions”

Researcher Baldwin Way from Ohio State University, who is behind the study, believes that this may have to do with the fact that paracetamol has a certain anxiolytic effect.

– If you’re risk-averse, you may pump a few times and then decide to cash out because you don’t want the balloon to burst and lose your money, Way says, adding:

– But for those who are on acetaminophen, as the balloon gets bigger, we believe they have less anxiety and less negative emotion about how big the balloon is getting and the possibility of it bursting.

The balloon experiment was repeated twice, with similar results. Furthermore, during the experiments, participants were asked to complete questionnaires in which they had to assess risk levels around hypothetical scenarios. For example, betting a day’s income on a sporting event, bungee jumping off a high bridge or driving a car without a seatbelt.

“Significant effects on society”

Those who had taken paracetamol were clearly more comfortable with, for example, the idea of driving without a seatbelt compared to the placebo group.

Way says the study suggests that the substance “seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities”, which he says could have implications for society.

– With nearly 25 per cent of the population in the US taking acetaminophen each week, reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society, he says.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/an-entire-world-was-injected-but-the-silence-about-the-long-term-side-effects-is-total/

Science

Comment: An entire world was injected – but the silence about the long-term side effects is total

The criticized covid vaccinations

Jenny Piper

Early warnings about the long-term risks of experimental mRNA vaccines were dismissed as conspiracy theorists and quacks. In hindsight, most evidence suggests that their fears were justified and new findings indicate that the vaccines can cause long-term changes in the genetic structure of the body.

Published 18 April 2025
– By Jenny Piper
A German study shows that the COVID-19 vaccine can affect the genetic structure of the body, triggering inflammatory reactions, autoimmune conditions and in some cases cancer.
{ $opinionDisclaimer }

Even at the beginning of the mass vaccination hysteria, I often wrote about the risks of taking the mRNA vaccine shots because the long-term side effects of this fast-acting so-called vaccine are unknown and will only become apparent in a few years.

Whistleblowers from within the pharmaceutical industry had also flagged this very aspect early on – that it is designed to seek out possible weaknesses in people’s immune systems, where it accelerates the development of cancer, autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular diseases. This was of course dismissed as quackery and conspiracy theories, which is why the vast majority of the population rolled up their sleeves at least twice.

Now, a new peer-reviewed study from Germany on mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines shows that they can cause long-term changes in the body’s genetic structure – changes that in turn can trigger inflammatory reactions, autoimmune conditions and, in some cases, cancer.

19 researchers at leading German institutions conducted the study, which was published in Molecular Systems Biology at the end of March. It shows a possible link between mRNA vaccines and epigenetic changes in immune cells, specifically linked to a protein called histone 3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), a protein that has been associated with leukemia and brain tumors.

Histones act as “coils” around which the DNA strand is wound, helping to give DNA its three-dimensional structure. Changes in these proteins affect how genes are expressed. The looser the histones are, the more actively the DNA is transcribed, which in some cases can stimulate tumor growth.

The researchers analyzed how the chromosomes of macrophages (a type of white blood cell) are affected by mRNA vaccination. The results showed persistent epigenetic changes in these cells, which could explain some post-vaccination inflammatory diseases.

Histone modifications – where the structure of DNA is altered without changing the DNA code itself – can play an important role in how genes are expressed. In this case, the researchers found a change in H3K27ac that persisted for months after vaccination, raising concerns about possible long-term effects on the immune system.

According to the researchers, changes in H3K27ac can be linked to several cancers, including gliomas (brain tumors) and leukemia. Other studies, including those from China and Poland, have also linked this particular type of histone modification to cancer.

Several scientists and experts have commented on the study.

Alex Berenson, an independent journalist, says the results show how mRNA vaccines can affect chromosomes in a way that is associated with brain tumors and leukemia.

Nicolas Hulscher, an epidemiologist, says the study adds to a growing body of evidence that mRNA vaccines can disrupt the balance of the immune system and lead to chronic inflammatory conditions.

Jessica Rose, Ph.D., immunologist and biochemist, points out that it is already known that repeated injections cause immunological changes and that these changes can reach stem cells and affect the long-term functioning of the immune system.

Other studies have shown that the levels of synthetic DNA in some vaccine doses (from Pfizer and Moderna) have been well above permissible limits – in some cases up to 470 times higher than regulatory guidelines allow.

The fact that so-called turbo cancer has risen sharply in recent years is hardly a coincidence. Unfortunately, I think we have only seen the beginning of this – and the Swedish establishment has put a lid on the whole thing.

 

Jenny Piper

All Jenny Piper's articles can be found on her blog.

https://nordictimes.com/science/researchers-create-unique-brain-map-using-mouse-and-movie-clips/

Science

Researchers create unique brain map using mouse and movie clips

Published 15 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The researchers believe that the technology developed could be useful for identifying disorders in the brain.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Using a mouse to watch various movie clips, including The Matrix, scientists have created the largest ever functional 3D map of part of a mammalian brain. The high-resolution map contains more than 200 000 brain cells.

Thoughts, emotions, speech and movements are controlled by neurons in the brain that send signals via axons, dendrites and synapses. But how networks of neurons interact – and how disruptions in these connections can contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer’s or autism – is not yet fully understood.

– You can make a thousand hypotheses about how brain cells might do their job, but you can’t test those hypotheses unless you know perhaps the most fundamental thing – how are those cells wired together, Clay Reid, a researcher at the Allen Institute, tells CBC.

A new project, presented in a total of eight studies by a global team of more than 150 scientists, aims to take brain research a step further by mapping parts of a mouse brain. For two hours, the mouse was shown various clips from movies, including The Matrix, and then researchers were able to map cells in one cubic millimeter of the mouse’s brain tissue, creating a high-resolution 3D map. It contains over 200 000 brain cells, of which about 82 000 are neurons.

The previous most detailed map of a human brain contains 16 000 neurons.

Like looking at the “stars at night”

The new map also captures the activity of tens of thousands of neurons that fire signals and interact with each other to process visual information. The results “are really stunningly beautiful”, says Forrest Collman, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute, who co-authored the study.

– Looking at it really gives you an awe about the sense of complexity in the brain that is very much akin to looking up at the stars at night, he tells Nature.

The researchers call the project a new fundamental step in brain research and believe that the technique developed could be useful for identifying disorders in the brain. The next step is to map an entire mouse brain.

– The technologies developed by this project will give us our first chance to really identify some kind of abnormal pattern of connectivity that gives rise to a disorder, says Sebastian Seung, a Princeton neuroscientist and computer scientist, one of the study’s lead researchers.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com
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