This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

Looking to start a side hustle or become your own boss.

Do it with Shopify.

Whether you're selling succulents or stilettoes,

Shopify has the industry leading tools to help you create,

control and grow your own business.

So get serious about selling and get Shopify today.

Sign up for a one pound per month trial period at shopify.coidek slash special offer

or lowercase that shopify dot coe

ek slash special offer this is scientific American 60 second science I'm

Christopher Intalyata. Got a minute?

As many as 12 million tons of plastic waste

end up in the world's oceans every year.

It's according to a 2015 estimate in the journal Science.

Over time, wind and waves grind and chew that plastic trash into tiny bits of what's called

microplastic, which happened to be about the same size and shape as the micro algae that filter feeders like oysters snack on.

Meaning oysters can ingest it.

To find out the effects of consuming the debris, researchers at the French Institute for Ocean Studies raised oysters in water polluted with plastic microbeats, in concentrations similar to those observed in field studies.

The shellfish sucked up the six micrometer

wide plastic particles extremely efficiently, as they evolved to do with the tiny algae. Two months later,

the oysters exposed to microplastics produced half as many eggs and slower swimming

sperm than did oysters that fed on algae alone.

...