Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#31

Post by konschubert » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:51 AM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #25

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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?

I think the red flag is in the combination of "teen" and "".

It's just a very typical clickbait pattern.

"Teen builds online brokerage platform" or "Teen builds bike that goes 100mph" does not cause the same negative anticipation.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#32

Post by runawaybottle » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:51 AM UTC

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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 might be a stretch, but it always reminds me of Craig Ferguson’s rant on ‘The deification of youth’:

https://youtu.be/UKUZ42T9diU

Edit: (*Scottish!): Ironically, he’s an old Irish man :p

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#33

Post by konschubert » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:52 AM UTC

konjin wrote: post #18

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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, but then again the majority of news is somewhere between lies and not even wrong. The point of news is eyeballs, not truth.

No, there exist reasonably good news sources.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#34

Post by NotPavlovsDog » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:53 AM UTC

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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 how all-encompassing and complex the challenge is.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#35

Post by Ekaros » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:55 AM UTC

nabla9 wrote: post #28

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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.

Even if it's not a bogus, they are rarely practical. Just like when adult hobbyists invent these things and they work, the engineering constraints of cost and scalability or negative side effects usually kill the project. In this example, how much vegetable oils and magnetite powder you need per cubic meter of water?

Also how big magnets are we talking about here? And what scale of flow they can operate at with sufficient efficiency? Also what if there is lot of surfactants(soap etc.) involved in water?

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#36

Post by iagovar » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:55 AM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #14

Sounds plausible but of course there are lots of details to be worked out including how to recover the magnetite and how much it costs But it's from September 2019. Does anyone know if anything has happened with the idea in the last 18 months.

> how to recover the magnetite

Won't that happen with the same magnet?

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#37

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:57 AM UTC

cdmckay wrote: post #30

wideareanetwork wrote: post #27

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!

[deleted]

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#38

Post by hyko » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:57 AM UTC

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#39

Post by Ekaros » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:58 AM UTC

shakedown1 wrote: post #24

s_dev wrote: post #2

Seems like a clever solution but not sure how scalable it is for cleaning the ocean. Cleaning the water would require pumping it which has to be super expensive. Maybe a such a filter at the end of residential waste pipes might be an appropriate application.

The application of it is not intended to clean the ocean. As you say, you're supposed to put it in the (washing machine, dishwasher, waste etc.) before it gets to the ocean.

With those there is soap or other such agents involved. I wonder if they will unbind the oils from the ferrous material or prevent the plastics from attaching.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#40

Post by DanBC » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 10:59 AM UTC

konschubert wrote: post #11

s_dev wrote: post #2

Seems like a clever solution but not sure how scalable it is for cleaning the ocean. Cleaning the water would require pumping it which has to be super expensive. Maybe a such a filter at the end of residential waste pipes might be an appropriate application.

Or just a coarse metal catcher in front of the estuaries of the most polluted rivers https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluti...

They mean to say "90% of the plastic in the ocean that comes from rivers comes from just 10 rivers".

https://factcheck.afp.com/widely-cited-study-did-not-show-95...

"It estimated that 88 to 95 percent of the plastic transported by 1,350 large rivers around the world — referred to by scientists as riverine waste — comes from only 10 rivers, all of which are in Asia and Africa. The study does not attempt to compare the plastic waste transported by rivers to the total plastic waste in seas and oceans."

There's a bunch of plastic in the ocean that didn't come from rivers - mostly industrial fishing waste.