Showing 1-10 of 10 assets

Date : 10/19/2011
Clip Length : 00:04:38
This NBC Learn video, part of a series on "Chance Discoveries" in chemistry, tells how three different chemists in two countries over more than 30 years happened to make a white, waxy substance during lab experiments that, once recognized as potentially useful and developed, became polyethylene -- the most common plastic in the world.

Date : 03/04/2011
Clip Length : 2
This 2011 Scientific American "Earthtalk" article analyzes the dollar, oil, and environmental costs of drinking bottled water instead of tap water. Americans use some 50 billion, mostly plastic water bottles every year -- more than 80 percent of which are not recycled. Source: Scientific American, March 4, 2011

Date : 01/01/1945
Clip Length : 00:10:29
This 10-minute 1945 filmstrip, sponsored by General Electric, shows children confused by a new material that is not from the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom. One child's father explains that it's from the "fourth kingdom," of plastics, then describes how plastic compounds and resins are made, and speculates on plastic's place in "the dream of the future."

Date : 05/29/2011
Clip Length : 7
The May 29, 2011 issue of Scientific American includes this excerpt from "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story" by Susan Freinkel, charting changes in the economy, society and the environment as inexpensive synthetic plastics replaced ivory, tortoise shell and other limited natural materials, and led to manufacture of a new generation of consumer goods.

Date : 01/28/2009
Clip Length : 2
This 2009 Scientific American article reports on studies indicating that bisphenol A, or BPA -- a chemical used in plastic bottles, and linked to heart disease, diabetes and liver failure -- may linger in the body for longer and at higher levels than previously thought. Source: Scientific American, January 28, 2009
Showing 1-10 of 10 assets