TedEd: A brief history of plastic

A TedEd by the TedEd team

Plastics are endemic to society. But they first came from a round object that wasn't even made of plastic - billiard balls. Billiard balls used to be made from elephant tusk ivory. But overhunting led to a decline in elephant populations, and ball manufacturers posted huge rewards for a new material. In 1863, American scientist John Wesley Hyatt decided to try. For 5 years, he worked to create celluloid, made from a compound in wood and straw called cellulose. Unfortunately, celluloid wasn't heavy enough and didn't bounce the right way to replace ivory in billiard balls. But it could be tinted and patterned to resemble other materials. Plastics are polymers - long molecules made of repeating parts. Plastics are soft and can be easily molded. The first plastic, celluloid, was unfortunately highly flammable, making it less useful. In 1907, Bakelite was created from a mix of phenol and formaldehyde. Since phenol came from the remnants of coal tar, it was cheaper to make, and it was less flammable. In the decades that followed, many other plastics came out, and polyethylene, developed in 1933, is still very commonly used. Injection molding was also created, and it allowed for plastics to be formed in the same mold over and over, opening up an array of possibilities. Surprisingly, plastics were first widely used in World War II, when they were used to make a variety of equipment, rather than to make consumer products. After the war, the factories began making consumer products like furniture and packaging. Unfortunately, the new ease and low costs also came with massive environmental impacts because plastics use many nonrenewable resources and take a very long time to decompose. Scientists today are working on more renewable materials and recycling what we already have.

Time: An American Nightmare: How the U.S. Succumbed to Complacency and Let 200,000 People Die of COVID-19

By Alex Fitzpatrick and Elijah Wolfson

    By mid-September, more than 200,000 people will have died from COVID-19 in the US. This is despite the fact that just 45 days before the first coronavirus infection, the US was ranked first out of 195 countries in its ability to handle a disease outbreak. They failed to take into account the political polarization and the fracturing within the country over the past few years. Had the United States used its vast resources to prepare for the virus and done extensive testing and contact-tracing instead of lulling the people into a false sense of security and ridiculing experts, we might be in a different situation. In fact, some much less prosperous countries have had no cases or gotten their outbreaks under control.

    At the top, the leadership continually downplayed the severity of the virus and refused to follow proven scientific guidelines. Because America is so fractured down party lines today, the division was clear for all to see. A majority of Republican-leaning voters thought masks were not important, while a majority of Democrats said masks are important. Similar results were seen for questions about medical professionals. The President also failed to test effectively, often decreasing the number of tests and blaming testing for increases in cases. Individual states have been left to fend for themselves, and few have succeeded.

    The pandemic has also dredged up the country's racist past. Because Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos were systematically persecuted for so long, the socioeconomic gap remains, and it is reflected in their higher COVID infection and death rates.

    Then there is the fact that most Americans are self-centered, according to a Pew survey. This is especially bad now when we need to be united against this virus and sacrifice some pleasures for the group.

    But all is not lost yet. A vaccine, the magical fix that lawmakers are hoping for might be here by the end of the year (although many people have said they might not take it), and we can still improve. Adequate amounts of PPE should be produced and distributed, and we need to listen to scientific experts. Most of all, we should stay home and sacrifice some things from normal life. "...some 200,000 Americans have already died, and many more may do so before a vaccine emerges unless America starts to implement and invest in the science-based solutions already available to us. Each one of those lives lost represents an entire world, not only of those individuals but also of their family, friends, colleagues and loved ones. This is humbling—and it should be. The only path forward is one of humility, of recognition that if America is exceptional with regard to COVID-19, it’s in a way most people would not celebrate."