Millions of tonnes of nanoplastics are polluting the ocean

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02162-0

by sohkamyung • 1 year ago

23 2 1 year ago

jgys• 1 year ago

I read this twice and don’t think I misread it:

The tiniest of pieces of plastic, nanoplastics are defined by the researchers as having a diameter of less than one micrometre (one one-thousandth of a metre). Microplastics are between one micrometre and 5 millimetres across.

Isn’t a millimeter one one-thousandth of a meter and a micrometer one one-thousandth of that (or one-millionth of a meter)? I don’t have to reason about objects this small very often so I was trying to make sense of the relative sizes and this threw me off.

Of course mistakes happen, so whatever, hopefully it’s corrected shortly; I’m just surprised to see something so easily check-able as a unit definition get missed in a publication like Nature.

rpozarickij• 1 year ago

You're right, this does look like a mistake in the article.

Millions of tonnes of nanoplastics are polluting the ocean

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