Is There Really a Plastic Spoon in Our Brains?

Summary

Science Vs: Is There Really a Plastic Spoon in Our Brains?

Released on May 8, 2025, "Science Vs" hosted by Wendy Zuckerman dives deep into the sensational claim that our brains contain an amount of plastic equivalent to a spoon. This episode scrutinizes the viral scientific paper behind the claim, dissecting its methodology, validity, and the broader implications for our understanding of microplastics in the human body.

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1. Introducing the Viral Paper

[00:00 - 03:15]
Wendy Zuckerman opens the episode by highlighting how certain scientific papers break into mainstream consciousness, often making extraordinary claims that captivate public attention. She introduces the new segment, “Viral Papers,” featuring Rose Rimler.

Notable Quote:
Wendy Zuckerman: “There are a lot of scientific papers out there that you will never read… But every now and then, there is a scientific paper that will break out of the ivory tower and go viral.”
[00:00]

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2. The Plastic Spoon Claim

[03:15 - 07:32]
Rose Rimler presents the sensational headlines from various news outlets claiming that an average human brain contains microplastics equivalent to a plastic spoon. This alarming statement quickly gained international attention, stirring public fear about the pervasive presence of plastics in our bodies.

Notable Quote:
Unnamed News Reporter: “The new study is raising concern about microplastics after researchers found an entire spoon's worth inside samples taken from human brains.”
[01:57]

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3. Skepticism Towards the Study

[07:32 - 11:21]
Rose expresses skepticism about the study, recalling previous experiences with flawed microplastics research. She highlights issues like sloppy math and significant overestimates in earlier papers, which cast doubt on the credibility of the current claim.

Notable Quote:
Rose Rimler: “...my reaction here was less alarm and more like, really, like, I was very skeptical.”
[03:25]

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4. Dissecting the Methodology: Pyrolysis Technique

[11:21 - 13:34]
The episode delves into the study’s methodology, explaining the pyrolysis process used to detect plastics in brain tissue. This technique involves burning the tissue samples and analyzing the resulting gas to identify plastic molecules. However, this method has significant limitations.

Notable Quote:
Rose Rimler: “So the scientist gets this printout that looks like a lot of lines of different lengths.”
[10:50]

[12:22]
Rose illustrates the problem by comparing pyrolysis results to identifying baked goods—different materials can produce similar molecular signatures when burned, making accurate identification challenging.

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5. Confusion Between Plastics and Fats

[13:00 - 14:12]
A critical flaw emerges: the molecular fingerprints of fats in the brain closely resemble those of polyethylene, a common plastic. Given that the brain is naturally fatty, distinguishing between endogenous fats and ingested plastics becomes problematic.

Notable Quote:
Oliver Jones: “The fingerprint of fats is very similar to the fingerprint of polyethylene. They look so similar that it's quite easy to mistake one for the other.”
[13:14]

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6. Contamination Concerns

[17:19 - 18:57]
Rose discusses the rampant issue of contamination in lab environments, where ubiquitous plastics can inadvertently infiltrate samples. Even with rigorous protocols, eliminating all plastic contamination is nearly impossible, casting further doubt on the study’s findings.

Notable Quote:
Rose Rimler: “There's actually a plastics research group that has set up a lab that's supposed to be as plastics free as possible. And even they can't get contamination down to zero.”
[18:41]

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7. Alternative Detection Methods and Findings

[21:30 - 23:27]
The conversation shifts to more reliable detection methods, such as laser-based techniques that identify individual microplastic particles without the contamination issues inherent in pyrolysis. Studies using these methods have found microplastics in various body parts, including lungs and livers, but in significantly lower and less alarming quantities.

Notable Quote:
Oliver Jones: “Personally, I reckon it'd be a very small little particle that you could probably might not even be able to see with your naked eye.”
[23:15]

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8. Contextualizing Plastic Exposure

[23:33 - 26:15]
Rose contextualizes the findings by referencing previous discussions on microplastics, such as the exaggerated claim that humans consume a credit card’s worth of plastic weekly. She emphasizes that the body can process and expel a significant portion of ingested plastics, mitigating potential health risks.

Notable Quote:
Rose Rimler: “It would probably be better if there weren't any. But it's not like the mass of cutlery, you know?”
[22:48]

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9. Conclusion: Less to Worry About

[26:15 - 27:08]
The episode concludes with Rose and Oliver urging listeners not to be panicked by sensational headlines. While acknowledging that some plastic does enter our bodies, they stress that the quantities are minimal and not as threatening as media reports suggest. The emphasis remains on being cautious with plastic exposure, particularly concerning endocrine-disrupting chemicals, rather than fearing an internal plastic accumulation.

Notable Quote:
Oliver Jones: “I think there's a lot of unnecessary worry that people have… the stress is probably worse than any plastic.”
[25:57]

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Key Takeaways

• Methodological Flaws: The pyrolysis technique used in the controversial study is prone to significant inaccuracies due to similarities between plastic and natural fat molecules.

• Contamination Risks: Lab environments are rife with plastics, making it challenging to ensure samples are free from external plastic contamination.

• Reliable Findings: Alternative detection methods report the presence of microplastics but in much smaller, less alarming quantities.

• Public Perception: Sensational media headlines can distort scientific findings, leading to unnecessary public fear.

• Health Implications: While reducing plastic exposure is beneficial, the notion of accumulating large plastic masses in the brain is unfounded based on current evidence.

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For More Information:
Listeners are encouraged to review the show notes for links to the episode transcript and additional citations. Suggestions for future viral papers can be submitted via Science Vs' Instagram and TikTok channels.

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This detailed analysis underscores the importance of critical evaluation of scientific studies, especially those that garner widespread media attention. By examining methodologies and seeking expert opinions, "Science Vs" provides clarity amidst sensational claims, promoting a well-informed public discourse on pressing scientific issues.

Transcript

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Verses. So there are a lot of scientific papers out there that you will never read and that I will never read, and only nerds really know about them. But every now and then, there is a scientific paper that will break out of the ivory tower and go viral. You see it all over the news. It's all over your feed. And sometimes these papers make these very extraordinary claims that, I don't know, maybe sound a touch dodgy. It's hard to know what to make of them. And that is where our brand new segment, viral papers comes in. And here with our very first viral paper is science versus senior producer Rose Rimbler. Hi, Rose.

[Rose Rimler]

Hi, Wendy. I also have the honor of debuting the jingle for this new type of episode, which I know you had asked our very talented sound engineer to mix up a jingle. He sent it to me, and I have it here for you to listen to.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yes. So I was thinking the jingle could be something like Viral papers. Viral papers. They're everywhere, but something's gone wrong. Oh, I just. That was just a suggestion. I didn't think it was gonna be the.

[Rose Rimler]

I didn't think it was a good idea. Is a good idea. You know, you can't just throw out a great melody like that or vocal performance.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

I thought it was a green light brainstorm session. Oh, well, I hope everyone's excited.

[Rose Rimler]

They should be excited, because today we're gonna talk about a paper that makes a very extraordinary claim. I'm just gonna play you some of the headlines here.

[Oliver Jones]

The new study has found an alarming amount of plastic in our brains.

[Unnamed News Reporter]

This morning, a new study is ra raising concern about microplastics after researchers found an entire spoon's worth inside samples taken from human brains.

[Rose Rimler]

And get this. When they looked at the average brain, the amount of microplastics in the brain was equivalent to the weight of a plastic spoon.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah, this was everywhere. New York Times, cnn.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, it got a lot of American press, but internationally, it was everywhere. It was, you know, down in Australia, where you are, India, Brazil, Mexico, France.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Une petite quire en plastique.

[Rose Rimler]

It got a ton of attention on socials as well. And that's because it sounds terrifying, right?

[Wendy Zuckerman]

You and me and everyone you meet.

[Unnamed News Reporter]

Has enough plastic in their brain to make a spoon.

[Rose Rimler]

If that doesn't scare you into changing everything from plastic, then I don't know what will.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah, I mean, the idea that a plastic spoon is sitting in our brains. Yeah. Very potentially scary. What's it doing in There. How is it affecting our behavior, our health?

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, but, you know, Wendy, my reaction here was less alarm and more like, really, like, I was very skeptical.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Tell me more.

[Rose Rimler]

Well, we did this episode about microplastics last year, and in the course of working on that episode, I just came across a lot of bull, including, like, bullshit in the science in papers. We're talking really sloppy math and overestimates. There's even a case where it looked like the scientists forgot to convert kilograms to milligrams. And then they overestimated this thing that they were trying to estimate by six orders of magnitude.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

What? That's a. That's a. That's a primary school era there. You forgot to convert. It's like that Simpsons episode where they're like, oh, sorry, I forgot to carry the wand.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, exactly. There's also all that stuff about how much of the chemicals and black plastic cooking utensils were, like, leaking into our food. Yeah, that made a big splash. You know, people were throwing out their spatulas. But turns out that those researchers also screwed up their math. And in fact, the chemicals that are leaching out of the utensils are way lower than what first got reported. So I'm just skeptical of this whole field.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Which takes us to the plastic spoon paper.

[Rose Rimler]

Yes. And as it turns out, the science here is also kind of fraught, actually, in a way that has big implications for a lot of the headlines that we see about microplastics.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So let's get into it. What is going on? Do we all have an entire spoon's worth of plastic lodged into our brain? Coming up after the break, do you want to sing us out with the Jingle Rose?

[Rose Rimler]

As wonderful as that melody was, I don't remember it. I would have to listen again. Was it an instant earworm? It was not an instant ear worm.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

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[Wendy Zuckerman]

Welcome back. Today on the show, Rose Rimler, senior producer, has been smelling something fishy in a scientific paper that claimed to find a lot of plastic swimming around in human brains. So where do we begin?

[Rose Rimler]

Well, we've been hearing about microplastics for years. We've been hearing that they're all around us, that they're in our food and our water and even in the air that we breathe. And now we're hearing that they might be getting into our bodies. And that's alarming, you know, because we know that plastics kind of come hand in hand with endocrine disrupting chemicals. We talked about this in our episode last year.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

That's right. The chemicals can interfere with our hormones.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. There's also early evidence that microplastics could irritate the immune system, like causing inflammation. So we don't want a lot of microplastic in our bodies, even beyond the fact that it's gross. Like, that could be really bad.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yes. So we have good reasons to not want a spoon's worth of tiny microplastics in our brain.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. I mean, believe it or not, yes, science is on our side. Great with that gut feeling. So let's dive into this paper. Let's find out what's going on here. I talked to a bunch of scientists about this. One person I spoke to was a professor of chemistry named Oliver Jones. He is at RMIT University in Australia. Do you remember when you first heard about this paper that said there's enough plastic in the human brain to add up to a plastic spoon?

[Oliver Jones]

Yes, I remember reading it. I thought it was pretty unlikely to be. Once I thought I was a bit suspicious when I saw the headline, like.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Our old friend Rose here.

[Rose Rimler]

Yes. Yeah. Just like me, he thought to himself.

[Oliver Jones]

Was that actually true?

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So why suspicious?

[Rose Rimler]

Well, to understand that, you have to understand exactly what these scientists did. So they got little pieces of brain tissue from dozens of people who had died for a variety of reasons. And they were looking for evidence of plastic in these tissue samples. And the way to do that is, you know, there's no magic wand that you can wave over a tissue sample and it beeps like, boop, boop. Plastic detected. There's nothing like that. So what these scientists did is they used this technique that's called pyrolysis. What is it?

[Oliver Jones]

Pyrolysis? I can't say.

[Rose Rimler]

No.

[Oliver Jones]

Pyrolysis, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, Pyrolysis, gas.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Chromatography, mass spectrometry, which I feel like.

[Rose Rimler]

I could imagine there's like a Lin Manuel Miranda rap to be written about gas chromatography, mass spectrometry.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So I've got my brain tissue.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

And how do I put it through the pyrolysis?

[Rose Rimler]

Gas chromatome?

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rose Rimler]

Well, the very first step is pyrolysis, which is what it sounds like, which.

[Oliver Jones]

Is essentially burning the sample so that you get a smoke coming off. Right. So then you've got a gas sample.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. So they literally get these bits of brain and then burn them. And the game is to try to search for evidence of plastics in the gas that comes off.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Oh, that's cool.

[Rose Rimler]

So you take the smoke that you've created, you run it through a machine. That's the gas chromatographer. It separates and sorts all the different components of the gas, all the separate molecules, and then the mass spectrometer weighs those molecules, and that helps scientists identify them.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Okay.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. It spits out something that looks like a chart where all the molecules that are present in the sample are broken down by weight. So the scientist gets this printout that.

[Oliver Jones]

Looks like it's a lot of lines of different lengths.

[Rose Rimler]

And then. So then what do you do with that? How do you go from that to like, oh, this is what the material is?

[Oliver Jones]

So. Well, each bunch of lines, so to speak, is sort of like a fingerprint.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Aha. So they're looking for the fingerprints of plastics within those brain samples that they just burnt up.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, basically they're looking for the molecular weights of different types of plastic. And in this study, they reported that they did find this in these brain samples. In particular, they said that they found evidence of a lot of polyethylene and that's the kind of plastic used for plastic packaging and plastic bottles and stuff like that.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah, that does sound scary. Yeah.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. And to lay people like us, that sounds pretty irrefutable. At first. It's like, dang, okay, they found plastic bits in these brains. But there's a problem here. Remember that the first step of this process was the pyrolysis, the burning part.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Oh, that was the funnest part.

[Rose Rimler]

So of course you remember. The thing is that when you burn your sample up, you've changed its identity from what it was originally. So what was initially polyethylene, for example, would now be a handful of different molecules. And the problem is there are other materials that can break down into those same molecules when they're burned.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So it's kind of like if you had a bunch of baked goods, muffins, loaves, souffles, I don't know. Anyway, and then you burnt them all up and put them through your pyrolysis spectrometer, whatever. And then on the line, it all just looked like flour or something.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, it's like if you were to see a line for flour and you're like, aha, I know this was a souffle. You're like, well, no, it could have come from something else. It could have come from the pie or something. Yeah, I guess I'm going with it. So I'm approving that analogy.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Excellent.

[Rose Rimler]

And bringing us back to plastics.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yes, yes.

[Rose Rimler]

So here's what the polyethylene could get mistaken for. That's kind of a big problem. Fat. And here's Oliver.

[Oliver Jones]

The fingerprint of fats is very similar to the fingerprint of polyethylene. They look so similar that it's quite easy to mistake one for the other.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Oh, this is a big deal. Because the brain is full of fat.

[Rose Rimler]

Exactly. The brain is very fatty.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Uh huh. That feels like a huge problem.

[Rose Rimler]

So I asked Oliver, could this supposed plastic spoon in our brains just be normal human fat?

[Oliver Jones]

Yes, I think the majority of it.

[Rose Rimler]

Wow.

[Oliver Jones]

What's more likely? That I actually have a plastic spoon's worth of plastic in my brain? Or there's a measurement issue from a technique that I know has issues with measuring plastics.

[Rose Rimler]

I mean, dang, that's a big problem, right?

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah. Yeah. So that headlines could have just been human fat in the brain.

[Rose Rimler]

Human brain has human fat in it. Yeah. That doesn't really have the same ring to it.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

No.

[Rose Rimler]

And it's not just Oliver that's raising alarm here. There's a group in Australia that was so concerned about the problems of this technique that they really put it to the test. They spiked blood samples with microplastics. So, like, they had a known quantity of microplastics, they put it in the blood, and then they ran this analysis to see could it accurately read how much was in there, and they found that it couldn't. And actually, they concluded that this technique is, quote, unsuitable for looking for these particular plastics in our bodies.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So what did the authors of that plastic spoon paper say about this general problem? That you can't tell the difference between healthy fats and plastics?

[Rose Rimler]

Well, yeah, so I reached out to them and they did acknowledge to me this is a quote, that the paper is a single study and the science is nowhere near settled. But they also say that they tried to solve this problem by trying to remove all the fat in their samples before they put the samples through the spectrometer at all. So basically, before they burned it up, they soaked it in a solution to break down all the organic matter and then they centrifuged it to get rid of that stuff.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Oh, that seems smart. So they thought they got rid of all the fat. So anything they're seeing is truly plastic. Yes.

[Rose Rimler]

But other scientists I spoke to were skeptical, but they did work or that it worked well enough to get all the fat out, like not even a little residue left behind. And just in general, more and more scientists are looking at this technique and they're saying, hold up. You know, one scientist I spoke to, he was very bland. He said that papers that look for microplastics in human tissues using this technique are, quote, garbage.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Ooh.

[Rose Rimler]

And the thing is, a lot of the studies that you see that science say things like microplastics or in our testicles or this or that part of the body, they use this technique.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Okay. And in our microplastics episode, we talked about blood having microplastics in it. Are you now questioning that paper?

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah, that paper that was. We looked at a paper that found microplastics in the arterial plaque that got scraped out of people's arteries. And that, I'm sorry to say, did use this now controversial technique that we just all over.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Uh huh. Okay. Interesting.

[Rose Rimler]

When I asked the authors of that paper about this problem, they pointed to the fact that they had looked at their samples under a powerful microscope and they had seen what looks like little jagged pieces in the cells, which they think must be bits of microplastic. So they argue that that meant their findings were legit.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Mm.

[Rose Rimler]

And interestingly, the plastic Spoon paper did the same thing. They also looked at their samples under a microscope, and they also saw some irregular shaped pieces and think that they're plastic. But the truth is that we don't actually know what those bits are. And even if they are plastic, it doesn't mean they got in there from the person eating or inhaling microplastics while they're alive.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

What do you mean?

[Rose Rimler]

It could be this other very simple but very, like, infernal problem that researchers in this space have to deal with, and that is the problem of contamination. Because these samples, they're analyzed in a lab, and labs are full of plastic. Oh, you've got plastic tubes, plastic equipment, plastic fibers that can shut off lab coats. And at any point, any of those things could have snuck into the sample.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So even if you find actual plastic in your sample, you don't know if it was in people's brains while they were walking around in the world. It could have just gotten into the sample from the lab.

[Rose Rimler]

Right. It could even have come from the medical examiner's office as the brains are being harvested. You know, I doubt that's a plastic free zone. So the authors tried hard. They talk about it, they, like, they thought about it, and they tried as best they could to keep plastic away from their samples when they had the opportunity to. But, like, it's pretty hard to do. There's actually a plastics research group that has set up a lab that's supposed to be as plastics free as possible. And even they can't get contamination down to zero. Wow. So if some plastic particle or fiber got into the sample, then that means it could have really blown up these results.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Right. And because they're. You mentioned they're starting with these tiny tissue samples. They weren't analyzing the entire brain for plastics. Right. They've got a tiny tissue sample.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah. And then, and then to get this idea of how much could possibly be in the whole brain, you've got to multiply it out.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

If you got two tiny pieces of plastic contamination, and then you multiply that out by 100, 1000, whatever. Now all of a sudden you have a plastic spoon in your brain.

[Rose Rimler]

It could be. It could be, yeah.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So then do we have any idea how much plastic is in our body and our brain and our testicles?

[Rose Rimler]

I'm gonna tell you about that after the break.

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[Rose Rimler]

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[Rose Rimler]

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[Wendy Zuckerman]

Welcome back. Today on the show, Viral papers. Viral papers. We don't need to play the jiggle again. Um, we have just said that the headline that you might have heard that we have a plastic spoon worth of plastics in our brain might be garbage. Strong words from some scientists. But there is still this question of how much plastics are in our body. Right?

[Rose Rimler]

That's right. And even the people critiquing the study and other studies like it, they say that there probably is some plastic in our bodies, but.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Right.

[Rose Rimler]

We want to know how much. So there are other techniques that are used to look for microplastics in the body. They're not perfect, but some of the scientists I talk to think that they're more reliable.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

They haven't gone up in smoke just yet.

[Rose Rimler]

No. And literally they don't use that technique.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

They.

[Rose Rimler]

They basically shine a laser. This is very oversimplified, but it's a technique that uses light to identify molecules instead of what we talked about before. And they look for individual particles. And the most reliable papers that have used those kinds of techniques. They do report microplastics in different parts of the body. They have found microplastics in human lungs. They've also found microplastics in unhealthy livers from livers from people who have cirrhosis. But here's the thing. These studies that use these other methods, they report small amounts of plastic. So, for example, there's one study that found microplastics in lung tissue. They reported an average concentration of less than one microplastic particle per gram of lung tissue. And most of these particles were smaller than a grain of sand.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

I know microplastics are small, but it still doesn't sound great.

[Rose Rimler]

It doesn't sound great, and it would probably be better if there weren't any. But it's not like the mass of cutlery, you know? Right, right. And Oliver isn't freaked out by it. If we could collect all the microplastics and nanoplastics from our body and wad it up into one thing, what would it be? You can write that headline. What do you think?

[Oliver Jones]

Personally, I reckon it'd be pretty probably if you could take it all and wad it up, It'd probably be a very small little particle that you could probably. Might not even be able to see with your. With the naked eye.

[Rose Rimler]

Oh, wow.

[Oliver Jones]

Yeah. I think it's pretty small, personally.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Mm. It's a very tiny spoon.

[Rose Rimler]

Which kind of makes sense. Right. Because I don't know if you remember this, Wendy, but in our episode on microplastics, we talked about there was a stat that I got around that we eat a credit card's worth of plastic a week or something.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yes.

[Rose Rimler]

In reality, the better paper that tried to estimate how much we eat, they found that it would take 23,000 years to eat a credit card's worth of plastic.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah.

[Rose Rimler]

If it takes 23,000 years to eat a credit card's worth of plastic, Then how would a spoon show up in a single human lifetime? Right. Because that's like, roughly the same amount.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Right. Yeah.

[Rose Rimler]

You know, and some of these more reliable studies have found microplastics in our poop, which suggests that we are eating some plastic, but we're also getting rid of at least some of it. So I don't know. On the bright side, like, we're not totally helpless here. Like, our body can get rid of stuff.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yeah. If we're finding it in the poo, that's actually a potentially good sign.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Because we know intuitively we are ingesting it if it's sloughing off food products.

[Rose Rimler]

Right.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

But if we're pooing out a bunch of it, that's Great. The body's like, I don't want this.

[Rose Rimler]

Yeah.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

So where are you at? How much do you think we need to worry about microplastics in our body and our brain?

[Rose Rimler]

I mean, I think not that much really. Even one of the authors of this brain paper told me that he thinks that the media hype has gotten a little out of control and it's like freaking everyone out when they probably shouldn't be that freaked out. I mean, I think that it's still worth limiting your exposure to plastics, especially around your food. And that's because of the endocrine disrupting chemicals that can come off the plastics. But as far as like worrying about this idea, I think that's out there. That we're becoming like plastic people. That we're, you know, half human, half plastic.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Yes.

[Rose Rimler]

I think that's just hype. I don't think the evidence is there.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Uh huh.

[Rose Rimler]

So I. I don't know. I guess my takeaway for the audience is like the, the next time you see a headline that's like, there's a he man action figure in your prostate, you know, don't, don't believe. Don't take it with a grain of salt. I would say so. More cities will come. There's gonna be more information. But like this, I'm just saying there's nothing to panic about. And the plus spoon thing in your brain thing, that is panic level information. And when I asked Oliver for his takeaway, he agreed.

[Oliver Jones]

And I think there's a lot of unnecessary worry that people have about because they read these things online, they assume they're true, and then they're like, oh, my goodness, I'm going to die. I've got plastic in my brain. And it's like the stress is probably worse than any plastic.

[Rose Rimler]

Worrying about the plastic spoon in your brain is the bigger problem.

[Oliver Jones]

Yeah.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

And that concludes our first segment of viral papers. Thanks, Rose.

[Rose Rimler]

Thanks, Wendy. Should we cue the jingle again?

[Wendy Zuckerman]

No. Viral papers. Viral papers. They're everywhere. But something's gone wrong. All right, Rose, how many citations are in this week's episode?

[Rose Rimler]

This week there are 55 citations.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

And if people want to read more about this paper and this technique, where should they go?

[Rose Rimler]

They should check the show notes because there's gonna be a link to the transcript of the episode there. And all of our citations are in the transcript.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

And also, if you have a viral paper suggestion for us, let us know. You can find us on Instagram. We're ScienceVS. I'm on TikTok. Wendy Zuckerman.

[Rose Rimler]

Thanks Wendy.

[Wendy Zuckerman]

Thanks Rose. This episode was produced by Rose Rimler with help from me, Wendy Zuckerman along with Keddie Foster, Keys, Meryl Horne and Michelle Dang. We're edited by Blythe Terrell Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Fact checking by Sam Lemenick Music written by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger so Wiley, Bhumi Hidaka and Bobby Lord. Thanks to all of the researchers that we spoke to for this episode including Dr. Roger Coleman, Professor Martin Wagner, Dr. Elke Fisher, Dr. Murray, Franz Diniak and Rachel Kozlowski. Science Versus is a Spotify Studios original. Listen to us for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We are everywhere. If you like what you're hearing, give us a five star review on whatever podcast app you're using. And if you are listening on Spotify, then please follow us and also tap the bell icon so you get notifications when new episodes come out. I'm Wendy Zuckerman. Back to you next time.