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FTRFNK t1_iuu9ara wrote

Reply to comment by flourishingvoid in Removing plastic pollution from water using nanoparticles by filosoful

Not really futuristic, surprising to say from a physicist to think literally manipulating living organisms to do a specific task is easier than making an inorganic small thing from minerals and then taking them out with a magnet.

Seems pretty simple to me. People have these weird conceptions about anything with a "nano" in front of it, particularly anything "nanoparticle".

Nanoparticle is literally just very very small, well, particle. This is quite literally just a very small iron oxide particle with a charged coating. What's futuristic about thar? There are iron molecules and oxygen molecules all around us. What's futuristic about using a giant magnet? If people cared about microplastics back in the day, we could have done this like 30 years ago.

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flourishingvoid t1_iuurttv wrote

Nanoparticles that 'accumulate' or stick to specific substances aren't the same as nanomachines ( I was referring to ), they are still nanoparticles but much more complex in design, and less volatile when it comes to degradation from different chemicals and other environmental factors.

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