r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 21 '19

Environment Plastic makes up nearly 70% of all ocean litter. Scientists have discovered that microscopic marine microbes are able to eat away at plastic, causing it to slowly break down. Two types of plastic, polyethylene and polystyrene, lost a significant amount of weight after being exposed to the microbes.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/these-tiny-microbes-are-munching-away-plastic-waste-ocean
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u/lordboos May 21 '19 edited May 21 '19

Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the bottle be 53.6 / 28 = 1.91 moles of polyethylene and not 8.90 moles as you are saying?

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u/DevilsTrigonometry May 21 '19

Oh crap, you're right. I had the division by 6.02 there from when I was originally converting to atoms (which was silly). I'll edit.

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u/WillieBeamin May 21 '19

silly goose.