If you live in Australia or Southeast Asia, we hope you enjoyed a stunning, rare, hybrid solar eclipse! For more information on the eclipse, read yesterday's update here.
On another note, we have some bad news about plastics. Scientists have recently discovered a toxic chemical in fast food packaging. PFAS, the chemical, is also known as a 'forever chemical' because it never fully degrades. PFAS has recently been found almost everywhere on Earth, from rivers in the US to in the bellies of fish in the Maldives, and even to the Himalayas! PFAS is used in this packaging to make them grease and water repellant, but they have many harms. The 'forever chemical' is linked to a lot of serious health problems later on in life, and it also leaches over time, allowing it to spread into the air around it and even the food on it. Also related to plastics, scientists have also recently made a huge discovery about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch of junk and trash is over 620,000 square miles, and is located in between California and Hawaii. A group of researchers actually discovered life in the patch, and it seems like many animals have adapted and gotten used to the massive floating patch in the ocean. The researchers found sea creatures like anemones, crustaceans, and jellyfish making the garbage patch their new home.
Interesting to see that animals have adapted to a big pile of trash?