This Week In Science (August 22 – 28)

Aug 28, 2026 12:50 PM

Shmong

Views

17891

Likes

484

Dislikes

7

Sauce:

1. https://www.sciencealert.com/deep-sea-scientists-hunting-a-shipwreck-accidentally-stumbled-across-the-oceans-own-backrooms

2. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-reverse-alzheimers-damage-in-mice-with-just-two-injections

3. https://www.sciencealert.com/no-place-on-earth-is-safe-if-all-hell-breaks-loose-but-one-place-is-safer-than-the-rest

4. https://www.sciencealert.com/massive-study-links-the-time-you-eat-breakfast-to-how-long-youll-live

5. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-made-a-cookie-out-of-recycled-plastic-slurry-welcome-to-2026

6. https://www.sciencealert.com/uniquely-beneficial-effect-study-suggests-keto-diet-is-healthiest-for-weight-loss-heres-why

Plastic cookies…??? Hey why not…we’ve all got plastic in our balls right?

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Weird to see that Australia thing considered "news". I've been wanting to build my retirement castle in the deserts of Australia for the last 22 years over what I considered to be common knowledge.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

#5 Oh, like we don't have enough plastics in our system already. "Eat your PFAS honey, so you grow up big and strong." /s

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

4: What are the times damn it!

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#4 sounds more like correlation than causation. I have a feeling people who are eating later or skipping breakfast are generally poorer and have less access to medical care than people who can eat on a strict schedule

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#2
On one hand, this is fucking amazing. Can’t wait to hear news about clinical trials on humans.

On another hand, rat Caesar soon? /j

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Australia is the most resiliant place. Remember, MadMax is where the climate is still ok-isch!

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

So the fact that Mad Max was based in Australia was ultimately wrong?

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I have consumed the microplastics, now feed me the macroplastics.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#2 LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!! WE DID IT!!! WE F#C#ING DID IT!!!! YEAH!!!!!

1 week ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

It's promising, BUT, from the article: "Of course, at this early stage, there's no guarantee that the results will carry across to humans. But the research could provide an intriguing new angle from which to tackle Alzheimer's."

1 week ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Modern science is so impressive that we're able to find a cure for Alzheimer's and cancer nearly every week! /s

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Clicked on #4 hoping to find out when to eat to die less, only to find that the article suggests that the time is more a symptom of going to die earlier than a cause. :(

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So.e of these studies feell weird sometimes, I am not sure of the mortality is truly related to the time you eat, surely more about the lifestyle that leads to eating at these times.

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They explicitly mention reverse causation being possible in the article. The headlines can be deceiving. You should read the full article to get all the "gotchas" and stipulations.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I'm gonna call bullshit on the Alzheimer's paper. In the first paragraph it says "That's because once neurons are lost, the adult brain lacks the ability to replace them." And, later, in paragraph #7 it states " The targets this time were astrocytes, cells in the brain that support neurons – and if needed, become new ones." If you can't keep your story straight for 7 paragraphs (either the brain does or does not replace neurons), I can't believe anything about your study.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

After Shmong's previous devastating revelation that consuming any amount of sugary drink (soda, juice, etc.) even once a day can double your chance of developing stomach cancer, now we're hit with eating later first and last meals of the day can increase your chance of death??

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Used to work on a survey ship with a Remote Operated Vehicle ( ROV ) doing the data collection. One job was checking oil pipelines in the North Sea. They had a live video feed from the ROV cameras to the operators shack and the bridge. Late one night I was up on the bridge watching the monitor when a monolith, like the one in 2001, appeared out of the gloom sitting on top of the pipe. It was an awesome sight and were about to wake the captain, when we realised it was just a large fridge freezer.

1 week ago | Likes 34 Dislikes 0

Thank you for scaring me to death, then taking it back at the last second 👍

1 week ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

I remember that first one happening ages ago...

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thanks for including links. 😊👍

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#1 is a debris from a shipping container that fell off a ship.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Re: #4 ... The findings essentially say if you skip breakfast, there's a higher all-cause mortality and eating dinner too early or too late also increases it, BUT.... "The study's biggest limitations follow from its observational design. Meal timing was primarily captured by a single 24-hour recall at the start, which may not represent years of habitual eating."

1 week ago | Likes 26 Dislikes 0

Most food studies are, if not bs, then at least sus. They are almost always based on recall and in long studies it's not at all reliable that participants recall their eating habits correctly from yestersay never mid a month ago. Also people tend to sugarcoat their answers.
It's really difficult to do proper science on eating habits because you can't monitor peopl 24/7 and foece them to eat like you want.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

They also acknowledge it could be reverse causality. People skipping breakfast or eating late as a symptom of other health issues. But really based on one day of eating I would hardly call this anywhere near scientifically rigorous.

1 week ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 0

I'm diabetic with a morning blood sugar spike. So eating right after waking isn't a good thing even if my stomach wanted me to.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

least science based ones i've seen in this series. there are some correlations which will need -lots- more studies, is more the real finding

1 week ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Wait, so you're telling me Mad Max is the BEST case scenario if society collapses?!

1 week ago | Likes 113 Dislikes 0

My favourite part about mad max is that there is no mention of the rest of the world. The rest of the world could be fine, thats just how australia is lol

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Well, as barbaric as the world of Mad Max is depicted to be, it isn't total anarchy - there is a society or societies there.

1 week ago | Likes 37 Dislikes 0

It's certainly an outcome where humans survived

1 week ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

well... when they are set anywhere else it's always zombies or aliens or demons.... so slighty car-cracy humans seems kinda tame xD

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

They said Australia is most resilient. Don't forget factor 2 in these scenarios: Will people go crazy?

1 week ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

On the Beach

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Why?

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Book and movie about Australia meeting the end of life on earth with dignity, great read and somehow both inspiring and depressing.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

aww yeah can't wait for corpos to sell me their waste as cookies for $8.99/4pcs. "you eat it and you will like it" could be the new mc donalds slogan

1 week ago | Likes 50 Dislikes 1

There is algae that "eats" plastic, but why bother if you can sell a product to the consumer-pigs? (I know the topic is more complex than this)

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

1 week ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Ba-dop-ba-ba-baaaah, it's ed-i-ble

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Ever play “Outer Worlds”?

1 week ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Could have been a great game, but they decided to go with decidedly mediocre instead. Even just better item diversification and acquisition like in Fallout:NV would have contributed massively to making the game more enjoyable.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

1 week ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

Heck yeah, Love Stupendium. Has he gone Milkshake Duck, yet?

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Cookies made from plastic..

1 week ago | Likes 92 Dislikes 1

If you want I can offer you an alternative...

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Do you remember the article claiming a Japanese scientist repurposed human excrement into an edible meat ~13 years ago? Forced to pick one of the two, I think I'd prefer plastic cookies.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

This will save so many grave diggers jobs but we might never get Soylent Green.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It’s called corpse starch in the warhammer 40k universe

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

You should read up on how synthases vanilla favoring is made.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Carbon is carbon, but yeah gross

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If you eat that, will you shit ping-pong balls?

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Probably, but your diet will pretty much have to be only these cookies.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

My diet is already pretty much cookies, fortunately.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Just check out NileRed's channel on youtube, the guy turned styrofoam into cinnamon candy, cotton balls into cotton candy, plastic gloves into hot sauce and grape soda...

Most of plastic is varying lengths of hydrocarbon chains with a lot of extra stuff. With enough steps and enough chemicals, you can turn them into edible stuff.

1 week ago | Likes 33 Dislikes 0

Edible doesn't mean without side effects.

Edible just means digestible. There's zero way to say forever chemicals can truly be filtered out since all the same pollutants are already in the food and drink that ISN'T derived from normally inedible things.

It could take several decades for us to find out "Oh, hey, turns out this wasn't a great fucking idea"

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

Wait. In a roundabout way, you'd be eating dinosaurs.

1 week ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

Yeah, no thanks

1 week ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 11

Completely agree.

1 week ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 6

Hey. Could I get a random downvote for being sane and normal like everyone above me? Please and thank you!

6 days ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

"edible".

1 week ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 14

No really and truly edible and sometimes tasty. Keep in mind Nile is doing this as just a guy dicking around on Youtube (A trained chemist guy but still) not doing shitloads of R&D into flavor or mass production. Sneering at something that could actually do something about the plastic problem on the planet really isn't helpful.

1 week ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 4

Sneering about not wanting to ingest plastic? Ok...

1 week ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 8

Yes... because it would no longer be plastic by the time you eat it. Much like the shit shoveled onto plants is not still shit when you eat a tomato.

1 week ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 4

What is a starch but a long chain polymer? Not sure how you get rid of all of the non-GRAS stuff that goes into the manufacturing of plastics, but the idea behind it is technically sound even if it sounds gross

1 week ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

There is a lot of methods for separating including reacting the non-edible parts with another chemical to get it to crash out and then filter it. Hopefully to be used in something else like construction. However I think we really just need to invest more in PHA.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I get it, I really do, it's creative, resourceful and could potentially help solve some problems we have. But still, you think they could have done something more.. palatable

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 2

I'm more thinking about it the way you'd think about using a 3D printed mug. There's no way to know what went into the production of the plastics and you don't want to risk leeching something horrible into your drink, so you need to coat the plastic in some sort of resin so it can't come in contact with anything going inside of you. Now instead of just drinking a soda that could have mystery chemicals in it, you'd be directly eating the mystery chemicals

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

It's better than burgers made from shit, though, right? Because, that's an actual thing Japan researched and developed.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It doesn't actually solve a lot

We don't have a world hunger crisis because there isn't enough food. There's metric tonnes of food waste generated every single day.

And long shelf life ultra processed and preserved goods would do more benefit nutritionally than plastic derived protein, but Americans most of all wanna stuff their fat fucking faces.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

World hunger isn't what I meant when I said potentially solve some problems we have. As everyone has been stating that the process is about breaking down the hydrocarbons into something else, imagine if we could apply a chemical to the next oil tanker spill that turns it into fish food, or the next oil pipeline breaks into fertilizer, something not harmful or that takes significantly shorter time to break down. Not to mention all the cubic meters of plastic trash in the world right now.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Just because we can do this doesn't mean we should.

There is no telling what side effects it could have on us in a few decades time.

There's already forever chemicals in our food and water supplies, organic or otherwise, that AREN'T meant to be there.

There's no proof this is safe to eat. Either. It's not even officially approved by any governing body on food safety

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0