Ah that’s great news the micro plastics in the ocean problem is solved.
All it took was a plucky teenager to solve it, too!
This deserves a nomination to the Forbes “top 30 under 30” list!?!?
Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
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Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#42Does anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
I used to, but after seeing the Collison brothers achievements I will click on any headline starting with "Irish Teen Invents...".
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#43We just have to be careful so that "the cure doesn't become deadlier than the disease": in case some magnetic particles are left in it could cause greater issues perhaps than plastic. We can't just assume that "yeah don't worry bro the magnets will surely remove all magnetic particles".
The magnetic particles are iron oxide, it's fairly common in nature. Adding too much of it to water will turn it brown and cause issues, but small quantities shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
It is actually a fertilizer, algae needs it (of course, too much algae is a problem, too).
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#44There are many methods that remove plastics from water in a petri dish or a glass. Translating those methods to ocean scale is the toughest part.
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#45We just have to be careful so that "the cure doesn't become deadlier than the disease": in case some magnetic particles are left in it could cause greater issues perhaps than plastic. We can't just assume that "yeah don't worry bro the magnets will surely remove all magnetic particles".
The magnetic particles are iron oxide, it's fairly common in nature. Adding too much of it to water will turn it brown and cause issues, but small quantities shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
Excess iron in seawater can cause huge imbalalances by seeding algae blooms. Any large scale application of this would need to take that into account or risk disrupting ecosystems.
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#46Does anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
This sort of comment crops up every time an article like this comes on HN. No doubt often times parents bring their kids along for the ride but no one bats and eye when we talk about our youth and learning to program as a 14 year old or something, why be surprised an 18 year old has come up with such an idea based on basic chemistry?
>when we talk about our youth and learning to program as a 14 year old or something
what 14? That's late indeed. The story has to be preschool to be awe-worthy.
For instance: "12/13y old writes the shortest assembly routine to move the head of the floppy drive of Apple II", doesn't sound grounbreaking - even if the code was better/shorter than DOS, itself. Solving massive world problems is a totally different scale.
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#47Does anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
Yes. They tend to be straight out of the “monkey lands plane” school of journalism.
Hahaha "monkey lands plane" reminded me of the ad with the monkey being the taxi driver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdXbf12AzIM
(not affilated with pepsi, I do not consume sugar-y soft drinks)
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#48Does anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
This sort of comment crops up every time an article like this comes on HN. No doubt often times parents bring their kids along for the ride but no one bats and eye when we talk about our youth and learning to program as a 14 year old or something, why be surprised an 18 year old has come up with such an idea based on basic chemistry?
Because the issues kids in these articles claim to solve are usually large unsolved problems, that have been studied by subject matter experts for years. It's possible someone could dream up a silver bullet, but I believe the trope of an untrained outsider approaching a problem and easily solving something that has stumped "the experts" is nowhere near as common as we'd like to believe. The reality is these solutions take years of persistent hard work and background knowledge, and rarely materialise all at once. But that doesn't make a feel-good headline.
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#49Does anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
Yes. My partner is working on a sub-topic, removing microplastics from laundry discharge water, and it is a huge and still undefined challenge. There is no magic pill. Even core definitions such as "what are microplastics" are under review and development. And then there's nanoplastics. For those wanting an introduction to the topic, don't go with media, start reviewing papers. The top cited papers clearly outline ho…
>removing microplastics from laundry discharge water
Much better way of addressing a lot of the microplastics problem IMHO. Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres" and then start requiring washing machine OEMs to put replaceable filters on the discharge.
Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
#50The Ocean Cleanup project started somewhat like this. They made prototypes and extensive testing, and concluded honestly that cleaning the ocean isn't doable, so they turned to cleaning up the source of most oceanic plastic: rivers. Their river cleaning boat is completely different from their initial idea, but it works well.
Ideas are cheap; execution is hard...