There will probably be more plastic in the ocean

than fish by 2050

Marine trash has been harming marine life for a very long time. These negative effects hurt both people and animals. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that people produce 300 million tonnes of plastic each year, at least 14 million of which end upin the ocean.

Although the effects of plastics on marine life have been discussed for a long time, not much has been done to help address the issue. National Geographic estimates that there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the ocean.

Scientists are concerned about the amount of plastic contamination as a result. Due to the amount of plastic in the water, it is now being questioned whether anything that comes out of it is suitable for human consumption. Because it impacts a lot of marine species in addition to human health, food safety, and climate change, plastic pollution in the oceans is a significant issue right now more than ever.

Microplastics are produced as a result of the degradation of plastics brought on by exposure to sunshine, weather, and other elements of nature. Animals that mistake plastic for food can easily consume microplastics. Because their bodies are unable to handle the amount of plastic being consumed, marine life is killed as a result of this mistake.

The World Wildlife Federation estimates that marine mammals affected by plastic pollution, such as turtles, seabirds, whales,fish, and dolphins, die 100,000 times per year as a result of ingestion or entanglement in plastic fishing gear. This number is likely to increase, as by 2050, there will probably be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

You can no longer label anything that emerges from the water as biological,according to Dr Jennifer Lavers, a zoologist at the University of Tasmania, who spoke with ABC Science. Fish ingest tonnes of plastic every  year, and the more plastic pollution there is, the further up the food chain you go, the more likely it is that it will reach humans, especially those who eat seafood.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature reports that Microplastics are found in tap water, beer, and salt and are present in all samples collected in the word's oceans, including the Arctic.

Because some of the chemicals used to make plastic are hazardous to humans, microplastics are now present in many items that people use on a daily basis.

Contaminated plastics that have been consumed by marine life pose health dangers to humans.

Last year, scientists published a study with unexpected results. Human blood was found to include plastic, which is not where it should be.

According to the researchers, plastic particles were discovered in 17 of the 22 anonymous, healthy adult participants' blood samples. A third of the samples had polystyrene, which is used for packaging food and other products, and half of the samples contained PET plastic, which is frequently used in beverage bottles. One-fouth of the blood samples contained polyethene, a material used to make plastic carrier bags, according to The Guardian.

This study proved that plastic is ingested by people and is found in everyday products. Scientists concur that these effects must be recognised because plastic production is only set to increase, even if there is still much to learn about the possible effects of plastic on humans.

Research has sbown that plastics affect both people and marine life, and as more knowledge is gained, individuals will be able to take action to minimise the problem of plastic pollution.

One of the easiest and most direct ways that people can help the fight against plastic pollution is to reduce their usage of single-use plastics like plastic bags, straws, and cups. By carrying about reusable versions of such products and avoiding single-use plastic, people can make little changes that, with regular use, may have significant positive benefits.

(Abridged and adapted from: https://www.marineinsight.com/

videos/wildlife-and-humankind-are-alarmingly-threatened-by-

plastic-debris).

Digital habits across generations

Today's grandparents are joining their grandchildren on social media, but the different generations' online habits couldn't be more different. ln the UK the over-55s are joining Facebook in increasing numbers, meaning that they will soon be the site's second bigger used group with 3.5 million users aged 55-64 and 2.9 million over-65s.

Sheila, aged 59, says, 'I joined to see what my grandchildren are doing, as my daughter posts videos and photos of them. It's a much better way to see what they're doing than waiting for letters and photos in the post. That's how we did it when I was a child, but l think l'm lucky I get to see so much more of their lives than my grandparents did.'

lronically, Sheila's grandchildren are less likely to use Facebook themselves. Children unser 17 in the UK are leaving the site - only 2.2 million uses are under 17 - but they're not going far from their smartphones. Chloe, aged 15, even sleeps with her phone. 'lt's my alarm clock so I have to,' she says. 'I look at it before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up.'

Unlike her grandmother's generation, Chloe's age group is spending so much time on their phones at home that tbey are missing out on spending time with their friends in real life. Sheila, on the other hand, has made contact with old friends from school she hasn't heard from in forty years. 'We use Facebook to arrange to meet all over the country,' she says. ' lt's changed my social life completely.'

Teenagers might have their parents to thank for their smartphone and social media addiction as their parents were the early adopters of the smartphone.

Peter, aged 38 and father of two teenagers, reports that he used to be on his phone or laptop constantly. 'I was always connected and I felt like I was always working,' he says. 'How could I tell my kids to get off their phones if I was always in front of a screen myself?' So, in the evenings and at weekends, he takes his SIM card out of his smartphone and puts it into an old-style mobile phone that can only make calls and send text messages. 'I'm not completely cut off from the world in case of emergencies, but the important things is I'm setting a better example to my kids and spending more quality time with them. 'Is it only a matter of time until the generation above and below Peter catches up with the new trend for a less digital life?

(Adapted from: 

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/b1-

reading/digital-habits-across-generations).

Digital habits across generations

Today's grandparents are joining their grandchildren on social media, but the different generations' online habits couldn't be more different. ln the UK the over-55s are joining Facebook in increasing numbers, meaning that they will soon be the site's second bigger used group with 3.5 million users aged 55-64 and 2.9 million over-65s.

Sheila, aged 59, says, 'I joined to see what my grandchildren are doing, as my daughter posts videos and photos of them. It's a much better way to see what they're doing than waiting for letters and photos in the post. That's how we did it when I was a child, but l think l'm lucky I get to see so much more of their lives than my grandparents did.'

lronically, Sheila's grandchildren are less likely to use Facebook themselves. Children unser 17 in the UK are leaving the site - only 2.2 million uses are under 17 - but they're not going far from their smartphones. Chloe, aged 15, even sleeps with her phone. 'lt's my alarm clock so I have to,' she says. 'I look at it before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up.'

Unlike her grandmother's generation, Chloe's age group is spending so much time on their phones at home that tbey are missing out on
spending time with their friends in real life. Sheila, on the other hand, has made contact with old friends from school she hasn't heard from in forty years. 'We use Facebook to arrange to meet all over the country,' she says. ' lt's changed my social life completely.'

Teenagers might have their parents to thank for their smartphone and social media addiction as their parents were the early adopters of the smartphone.

Peter, aged 38 and father of two teenagers, reports that he used to be on his phone or laptop constantly. 'I was always connected and I felt like I was always working,' he says. 'How could I tell my kids to get off their phones if I was always in front of a screen myself?' So, in the evenings and at weekends, he takes his SIM card out of his smartphone and puts it into an old-style mobile phone that can only make calls and send text messages. 'I'm not completely cut off from the world in case of emergencies, but the important things is I'm setting a better example to my kids and spending more quality time with them. 'Is it only a matter of time until the generation above and below Peter catches up with the new trend for a less digital life?

(Adapted from: 

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/b1-

reading/digital-habits-across-generations).

Leia o texto a seguir para responder a questão a seguir.

In the video game and HBO show The Last of Us, humans struggle to survive after an infectious fungus turns ordinary people into zombies. Creators of the franchise didn't look far for inspiration — the series is based off a real-life species of fungus that performs a kind of "mind control" on its insect hosts. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, otherwise known as cordyceps or zombie-ant fungus, infects insects such as ants or spiders. Like other parasites, cordyceps drains its host completely of nutrients before filling its body with spores that will let the fungus reproduce. It then compels the insect to seek height and remain there before it expels these spores, infecting other nearby insects in the process. Bryn Dentinger, a biology professor at the University of Utah and curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, told NPR that the fungus is one of the best known, and probably most commonly encountered, kinds of organisms with this mind control capability. And he said that scientists aren't entirely sure how cordyceps is able to have the effect that it does on insects, although there are theories. "There seems to be some combination of physical manipulation of muscle fibers, for example, possibly growth into the brain itself, that can impact its behavior," he said. "But there's also very likely some sort of chemical attack on the host, either small molecules, or proteins or some other things, that end up manipulating brain behavior." Dentinger, who is also a fan of HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us, said that there are some major differences between how the fungus is portrayed in the show and in real life. Cordyceps does not typically infect other hosts through the mouth, for example, and the infected aren't connected to one another through a network. And, perhaps the most important: The fungus cannot infect humans. "Our body temperatures are high enough that most organisms, their proteins would denature at that temperature and so they can't survive in our bodies," he said. But there are species of fungus that are able to withstand higher temperatures and can therefore infect humans. Climate change, as Dentinger explains, is equipping certain fungi with the capacity to withstand higher temperatures. And it's possible that a fungus with similar mind-control capabilities could, at some point, be able to withstand a human's body temperature. "That may be one reason why we're seeing more fungal infections in human humans, but again, to date, none of them are cordyceps," he said. "However, maybe that will happen in the future, but, at the moment, that is not a possibility." And, as Dentinger, there are already species of fungus that alter a human's mental processing, such as psilocybin, otherwise known as "magic mushrooms." Meanwhile, other kinds of fungi are already ubiquitous in human life. Take yeast, for example, which is found in bread and in the human gut. And while the prospect of fungus being able to manipulate human behavior isn't impossible, it's not likely, according to Dentinger. The traits the fungus have that allow them to attack an insect host are very specific to that insect – and it's not easily transferable to another species. It's unlikely that they would be able to hop from, say, an ant to a human, because we're so different," he said.

Fonte: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1151868673/the-last-of-us-cordyceps-zombfungus-real. Acesso em: 30.01.2023.

Leia o texto a seguir para responder a questão a seguir.

In the video game and HBO show The Last of Us, humans struggle to survive after an infectious fungus turns ordinary people into zombies. Creators of the franchise didn't look far for inspiration — the series is based off a real-life species of fungus that performs a kind of "mind control" on its insect hosts. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, otherwise known as cordyceps or zombie-ant fungus, infects insects such as ants or spiders. Like other parasites, cordyceps drains its host completely of nutrients before filling its body with spores that will let the fungus reproduce. It then compels the insect to seek height and remain there before it expels these spores, infecting other nearby insects in the process. Bryn Dentinger, a biology professor at the University of Utah and curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, told NPR that the fungus is one of the best known, and probably most commonly encountered, kinds of organisms with this mind control capability. And he said that scientists aren't entirely sure how cordyceps is able to have the effect that it does on insects, although there are theories. "There seems to be some combination of physical manipulation of muscle fibers, for example, possibly growth into the brain itself, that can impact its behavior," he said. "But there's also very likely some sort of chemical attack on the host, either small molecules, or proteins or some other things, that end up manipulating brain behavior." Dentinger, who is also a fan of HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us, said that there are some major differences between how the fungus is portrayed in the show and in real life. Cordyceps does not typically infect other hosts through the mouth, for example, and the infected aren't connected to one another through a network. And, perhaps the most important: The fungus cannot infect humans. "Our body temperatures are high enough that most organisms, their proteins would denature at that temperature and so they can't survive in our bodies," he said. But there are species of fungus that are able to withstand higher temperatures and can therefore infect humans. Climate change, as Dentinger explains, is equipping certain fungi with the capacity to withstand higher temperatures. And it's possible that a fungus with similar mind-control capabilities could, at some point, be able to withstand a human's body temperature. "That may be one reason why we're seeing more fungal infections in human humans, but again, to date, none of them are cordyceps," he said. "However, maybe that will happen in the future, but, at the moment, that is not a possibility." And, as Dentinger, there are already species of fungus that alter a human's mental processing, such as psilocybin, otherwise known as "magic mushrooms." Meanwhile, other kinds of fungi are already ubiquitous in human life. Take yeast, for example, which is found in bread and in the human gut. And while the prospect of fungus being able to manipulate human behavior isn't impossible, it's not likely, according to Dentinger. The traits the fungus have that allow them to attack an insect host are very specific to that insect – and it's not easily transferable to another species. It's unlikely that they would be able to hop from, say, an ant to a human, because we're so different," he said.

Fonte: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1151868673/the-last-of-us-cordyceps-zombfungus-real. Acesso em: 30.01.2023.

Leia o texto a seguir para responder a questão a seguir.

In the video game and HBO show The Last of Us, humans struggle to survive after an infectious fungus turns ordinary people into zombies. Creators of the franchise didn't look far for inspiration — the series is based off a real-life species of fungus that performs a kind of "mind control" on its insect hosts. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, otherwise known as cordyceps or zombie-ant fungus, infects insects such as ants or spiders. Like other parasites, cordyceps drains its host completely of nutrients before filling its body with spores that will let the fungus reproduce. It then compels the insect to seek height and remain there before it expels these spores, infecting other nearby insects in the process. Bryn Dentinger, a biology professor at the University of Utah and curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, told NPR that the fungus is one of the best known, and probably most commonly encountered, kinds of organisms with this mind control capability. And he said that scientists aren't entirely sure how cordyceps is able to have the effect that it does on insects, although there are theories. "There seems to be some combination of physical manipulation of muscle fibers, for example, possibly growth into the brain itself, that can impact its behavior," he said. "But there's also very likely some sort of chemical attack on the host, either small molecules, or proteins or some other things, that end up manipulating brain behavior." Dentinger, who is also a fan of HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us, said that there are some major differences between how the fungus is portrayed in the show and in real life. Cordyceps does not typically infect other hosts through the mouth, for example, and the infected aren't connected to one another through a network. And, perhaps the most important: The fungus cannot infect humans. "Our body temperatures are high enough that most organisms, their proteins would denature at that temperature and so they can't survive in our bodies," he said. But there are species of fungus that are able to withstand higher temperatures and can therefore infect humans. Climate change, as Dentinger explains, is equipping certain fungi with the capacity to withstand higher temperatures. And it's possible that a fungus with similar mind-control capabilities could, at some point, be able to withstand a human's body temperature. "That may be one reason why we're seeing more fungal infections in human humans, but again, to date, none of them are cordyceps," he said. "However, maybe that will happen in the future, but, at the moment, that is not a possibility." And, as Dentinger, there are already species of fungus that alter a human's mental processing, such as psilocybin, otherwise known as "magic mushrooms." Meanwhile, other kinds of fungi are already ubiquitous in human life. Take yeast, for example, which is found in bread and in the human gut. And while the prospect of fungus being able to manipulate human behavior isn't impossible, it's not likely, according to Dentinger. The traits the fungus have that allow them to attack an insect host are very specific to that insect – and it's not easily transferable to another species. It's unlikely that they would be able to hop from, say, an ant to a human, because we're so different," he said.

Fonte: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1151868673/the-last-of-us-cordyceps-zombfungus-real. Acesso em: 30.01.2023.