Tag Archives: Health

‘Brain rot’ – word of the year 2024

My personal word of the year is demonize. But …

A commentary on how “we are using our free time” … an ongoing “cultural conversation about humanity and technology.”

• AP News > “How to sum up 2024? The Oxford University Press word of the year is ‘brain rot’” (December 2, 2024) – chosen by a combination of public vote and language analysis by Oxford lexicographers, it beat five other finalists: demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy and lore.

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Taking plastic to heart – a health narrative

I sort of cringe when I hear about microscopic images which show “visible, jagged-edged ‘foreign bodies'” in our cells.

And yet, there’s the more familiar lead thing. Who wants lead in our water supply (tap, bottled, etc.)? Aren’t all parents concerned? How have perspectives and perceptions changed in the past? In the present.

Even with modern chemistry, microscopes, chemical analysis, lab research & group studies, what does it take for collective agreement on the data? To trust the science? To take collective (political) action? To change habits?

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The future of forever chemistry

PFAS chemicals are characterized by a carbon-fluorine backbone (the “F-C” in “forever chemicals”) – the carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry.

The incredible complexity of our global ecosystem … at so many levels …

Well, then there’s “better living through chemistry” … the plastic ocean, plastic in our food chain, and PFAS in our tap water (and blood).

Here’s one of many articles in the news cycle this week prompted by a recent study from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) – which “analyzed water collected from over 700 taps and kitchen faucets in homes, offices and schools across the country.”

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