NEW PAPER, JUST OUT! 👀
Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯
A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛
Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x
Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯
A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛
Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x
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Comments
The sculptures were a collaboration between the artist and the insect, as Duprat puts it: “It is their work as much as it is mine.” I love that. 🏆
Eventually, the larvae abandon their cases, leave the water, and emerge as flying insects. 4/x
But I couldn’t stop wondering: what if this had been happening much earlier? 🤔 Could historical specimens reveal that caddisflies were incorporating plastic long before we noticed? 🐛 6/x
Far from being a single overarching collection, a natural history collection brings together many collections. 🏛️Some, such as the caddisfly’s casing, are miniature collections crafted by insects. 🐛 7/x
Now I can’t find the :@):7! Coot article. I’ve written author, asking when it was published. Searched
April 3 through today (I’m making newspaper growing pots for my garden, so had a stack saved will keep trying.
Can you get it there?
Reading this made me look up when plastics were invented. For some reason, I thought the 1950’s, but Bakelite was invented in 1907.