Exploring the Tiny World of Microplastics in Your Own “Lab”

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that result from the breakdown of larger plastic objects, such as water bottles, shopping bags, food containers, and many other types of waste. Microplastics can be as small as a bacterial cell or as big as a grain of rice. Microplastics exist in many different shapes: some are round and smooth while others are in the shape of fibers or fragments. Scientists have known about microplastics in nature since the 1970s, but lately they are finding these tiny plastics almost everywhere they look—in the air, lakes, rivers, oceans, on land, and even in remote places like Arctic lakes and snow! In this article, we will show you the hidden universe of microplastics, cool tools scientist use to analyze them, and show how you can do your own experiment to analyze microplastics from a nearby beach.