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1. #EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM REGISTRATION#
2. #EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM PROFESSIONAL#
3. #EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM SERIES#
4. #EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM FREE#

We also do not know to which degree biodegradation contributes to the mineralization of plastic in seawater 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. It is currently unknown how and at which rates fragmentation of plastic proceeds. An estimated 13% to 32% of the total weight of buoyant plastics in the oceans consists of microplastic particles of 0.3–5 mm in size 14, 21, 22. In the marine environment plastic breaks up into smaller particles 18, 19, 20. The issue of widespread plastic waste in the environment is exacerbated by the durability and persistence of these materials in the environment 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Millions of tonnes of plastic waste are estimated to enter the oceans annually 1, 2.

This study emphasizes the need to obtain experimental data on plastic litter degradation under conditions that are realistic for marine environments. The formation of microplastics observed in the microcosm was responsible for at least part of the weight loss. Weight loss of plastic items was ≤ 1% per year for polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene, 3–5% for latex, polyethylene terephthalate and polyurethane, 15% for cellulose acetate, and 7–27% for polyester and polylactic acid compostable bags. Rate constants for ER decrease in polyethylene items in the microcosm were similar to tensile elongation decrease of polyethylene sheets floating in sea, measured previously by others. Electrical resistances (ER) of plastic items decreased as function of time, an indication that seawater had penetrated into microscopic crevices in the plastic that had developed over time. Microbial biofilms dominated by Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes and Bacteriodetes grew on the plastics, and caused some of the polyethylene items to sink to the bottom. In the microcosm, polyurethane foams, cellulose acetate cigarette filters, and compostable polyester and polylactic acid items readily sank, whereas polyethylene air pouches, latex balloons, polystyrene foams and polypropylene cups remained afloat.

#EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM SERIES#

Our lounge can also be booked by PhDs and Postdocs on a regular basis, whether it is for a meeting or just to hang out – we have fresh coffee all day long! Read more about the series and the upcoming program here.We studied the fragmentation of conventional thermoplastic and compostable plastic items in a laboratory seawater microcosm. Due to limited space (40 people), this will be first come, first served. In addition to these, we will serve lunch to PhD candidates in our lounge in Kristine Bonnevies hus every Thursday.

#EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM PROFESSIONAL#

Once a month, dScience will invite you to join us for lunch, soft drinks and professional talks at the Science Library. This way, we will not be short on food and drinks! (Registration is not binding and you are welcome to join us anyway!)

#EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM REGISTRATION#

To participate, please fill out the registration form. Programġ2:00 – "Mapping the microcosm - Searching for new laws of physics with fast computational methods" by Are Raklev (Professor, Department of Physics, and member of GAMBIT) and Anders Kvellestad (Postdoctoral Fellow, Theoretical Physics, and leader of GAMBIT)

Along the way we have encountered surprising new uses for our tool, ranging from nuclear physics to public health. In this talk, we will describe some of the computational challenges we face when searching for new physics and how we have tackled them. In 2012, together with collaborators from all over the world, we started a project called GAMBIT (a Global And Modular Bsm Inference Tool) to make an efficient and statistically consistent computational tool for evaluating any new (particle physics) model.

#EXAMPLE OF MICROCOSM FREE#

For example, our current best description of the microcosm, the Standard Model of particle physics, has 19 free parameters to be fitted to half a century or so of precision measurements from experiments involving thousands of researchers. In the last decade it has become clear that the single most important obstacle to investigating the smallest constituents of the Universe - the elementary particles and their interactions - lies in combining the extreme wealth of experimental results that we have with increasingly complex theoretical models, meaning models with many parameters.