Professor Arielle Mensch, Lafayette College, Department of Chemistry.

“Humans eat a credit card worth of microplastics every week.” “Are microplastics in my brain?” “Researchers unable to remove microplastics from drinking water.” Perhaps you have read headlines similar to these in your daily scrolling of the news or heard them on the evening news, but what even are microplastics? Should we be concerned about them, or are these types of headlines overselling the problem? How can we avoid microplastics getting into the environment? How might we remove them once they are there?  Prof. Arielle Mensch, an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lafayette College, leads a team of undergraduate research students investigating these tiny particles and will share her thoughts on these pressing questions!