Plastic, the Size of a Virus

Anja goes on a lab tour with Alexandra ter Halle from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse. The chemist and her team were the first to detect nanoplastic in the open ocean - plastic so small that it is comparable in size to a virus. What do we know about these very tiny pieces, and how do researchers try to detect and understand them? The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with links and pictures: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/09/14/ep-2-transcript/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast Support (German): www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions https://sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Ines Blaesius, Luisa Beck, Tim Howard, Melanie Bergmann, Deborah Blum and the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and Joachim Budde for editing the German version for RiffReporter: https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/makro-mikro-nanoplastik/