A Blast from Our Past and Plans for a Petrochemical-Free Future

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re looking at our reporting—from 100 years ago. In 1924 Scientific American’s pages were bemoaning traffic, waste management and pests. They were also praising the by-products of coal tar and those substances’ use in household items. While the record is clear on the toxicity of fossil fuels to our environment and our health, demand for fossil-fuel-based “petrochemical” products such as plastic is only increasing. Host Rachel Feltman advises on how to avoid petrochemicals in our everyday products. Plus, we take a lighthearted look at a telepathy study also featured in one of our 1924 issues. Recommended reading: The Gas Industry Is Gaslighting the Public about Climate Change Renewable Power Set to Surpass Coal Globally by 2025 E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, this is Bellamy Young.
0:03.0	Since I first shared that as a teenager, my dad had overt hepatic encephalopathy, a disease caused by cirrhosis.
0:09.0	The response has been overwhelming.
0:11.0	The most common comment I hear is I wish I knew a
0:14.4	sentiment that echoes my family's experience. Even after my dad's O.H.E. diagnosis
0:20.4	we didn't know what to expect or that O.H.E. can be a progressive and
0:24.8	persistent disease. But today we know more and we have more options for O.H.
0:30.3	than we did when my father was sick. That's why I am partnering with Seelix Pharmaceuticals
0:35.0	to help encourage people who are affected by O.H.
0:38.0	To not wait for symptoms to progress or become unmanageable.
0:42.0	We want people impacted by O.H.E.
0:44.2	Patients, caregivers, medical professionals,
0:46.8	to have the information to make informed decisions about managing the
0:51.0	disease. Visit my Instagram to learn more.
0:54.0	Happy Monday listeners.
0:59.0	This is Rachel Feltman for Science Quickly,
1:02.0	but you're actually not listening to our weekly news roundup.
1:05.0	See, crafting a news roundup that's hot and fresh and ready to go first thing on Monday morning takes a lot of hustle on Thursday and Friday.
1:13.2	We figured you'd understand why we'd rather avoid that over the holiday.
1:17.1	But we didn't want to leave you hanging too long without a new episode of signs quickly
1:21.1	to enjoy.
1:22.2	So I went and dug up a wild blast from the past for us to share instead.
	...

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