Science Memes

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submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nah corporations really don't give a shit at all, like all chewing gum is literally just plastic too and sheds tons of microplastics into your mouth as you chew it.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/rethink-chewing-gum-habit-essentially-plastic/

Plastic is an organic material though, so your assumption was correct.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The difference is in the definition or organic. When the average person thinks organic, they mean something that is or used to be alive. When a scientist think organic, they're talking about carbon compounds.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

Plastic are made from fossil fuels which are from primordial plants. So still organic according to your definition. Just a few hundred million years since it was alive.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting. Always thought chewing gum was more like when you made "plastic" out of the caesin in milk.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You can buy chewing gum made from natural materials but it's not the norm. Most chewing gum is made from mineral oil.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also, chemically they are identical. Plastic made of a plant is still a plastic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nah it's just rubbery dried chicle sap, no chemical refining like with oil

This is what it looks like

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can almost taste the six seconds the flavor added to that will last!

Five minutes of microplastics or a blink of flavor? Answer might just be no gum :(

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah no idea why this is so hard to achieve but it's a very noticeable difference.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes really, still a polymer: it forms polyisoprene upon drying. You also find the stuff (synthesised from oil, yes, but chemically indistinguishable) in tires and condoms.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's a different plant

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Does not matter. All these natural rubbers are very similar in how they work, you can find a paper on the polymerization in chicle here if you don't believe me.