Shows
Drip FeedDrip Feed #15: circular economies within circular economiesLet’s talk about turning toxic trash into treasure, because science just cracked the code on PFAS and wind turbine blades, with a side of carbon-negative plastics.First up: PFAS, the "forever chemicals" that haunt our water. A team at Rice University just pulled off a magic trick, zapping PFAS from water and transforming the waste into graphene. Their method removes 99.98% of PFOA (a notorious PFAS) while upcycling the leftovers into one of the most valuable materials on Earth, graphene, which sells for ~$100/gram.The best part? No toxic byproducts. Just clean water and a pa...2025-05-0703 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed # 14: weird, plastick-y feelingsLet’s talk about plastic, again, because the deeper we look, the weirder it gets.First, the good news: Australian beaches are cleaner. A 39% drop in coastal debris over a decade proves that policy changes and cleanups work.Now, the bad news: plastic is literally built to fail. A new study reveals that 75% of plastics have a "brick-and-mortar" structure where soft layers glue hard segments together. Problem is, those soft layers crumble easily, releasing a hailstorm of nanoplastics, even in landfills. The fix seems to be to engineer tougher connectors. Until then, expect more invisible po...2025-04-3003 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #13Let’s talk about PFAS, the "forever chemicals" that have infiltrated everything from our frying pans to our bloodstreams. These synthetic compounds, once celebrated for their non-stick and stain-resistant magic, are now revealing their dark side. But science isn’t just sounding the alarm, it’s fighting back with some ingenious solutions.First, the bad news: PFAS are everywhere. Since the 1950s, they’ve been used in everything from Teflon pans to fast-food wrappers, cosmetics to pharmaceuticals. Epidemiologist Martyn Kirk, who led Australia’s PFAS Health Study, says "Basically, the entire population of industrialized countries is exposed." While the...2025-04-2304 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed # 12Let’s talk about water, where it came from, where it’s going, and how we’re trying to save it. Because while H₂O might seem simple, its story is anything but. Let’s rewind all the way back to 100 million years after the Big Bang. A new study in Nature Astronomy suggests water formed back then, in the aftermath of ancient supernovae. When these massive stars exploded, they spewed out oxygen that mixed with hydrogen in space, creating water in dense pockets where new stars and planets eventually formed. Some of that primordial water might even have...2025-04-1604 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #11This time, let’s focus on the breakthroughs that might finally help us break our addiction to plastics. Because while plastic is everywhere, science is finding smarter, cleaner, and sometimes downright clever ways to deal with it.First up: a simple, cheap way to recycle PET, the plastic in your water bottles and polyester clothes. Researchers have developed a non-toxic, solvent-free process that uses an inexpensive molybdenum catalyst and activated carbon to break PET down into its building blocks. Here’s the kicker: all they need to finish the job is *air*.That’s right—after th...2025-04-0904 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed # 10Let’s talk about microplastics…again. Because, let’s face it, they’re everywhere. In our oceans, in our food, in our bodies, and even in the air we breathe. But science is uncovering some surprising truths about where they come from, where they end up, and what they’re doing to us and the planet.For years, scientists thought the ocean was a major source of airborne microplastics. The idea was that sea spray, wind, and waves lifted microplastics into the atmosphere, where they could travel far and wide. But a new study led by the Max Planck...2025-04-0204 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #9Again with the plastic?? Okay this time, let’s focus on how we’re making it easier to recycle, break down, and even turn into something useful. First up, a simple but brilliant innovation: labels that actually come off. A team from the Un iversity of Reading has developed a new polymer adhesive that sticks firmly to plastic bottles during normal use but breaks down when treated with alkaline solutions. This means labels can be easily removed during recycling, improving the quality of the recycled plastic. Now, let’s talk about breaking down plastics entirely. A team...2025-03-2603 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #8While it might seem like a basic human right, getting clean water isn’t always easy. Luckily, science is stepping up with some pretty ingenious solutions. First up, tea. Yes, tea. Northwestern University researchers discovered that brewing tea can naturally filter heavy metals like lead and cadmium out of water. The heavy metal ions stick to the surface of the tea leaves, trapping them until the used tea bag is tossed. Now, before you start using tea bags as your new water filter, the researchers aren’t suggesting that. Their goal was to measure tea’s abil...2025-03-1904 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #6Let’s talk about plastic. Not the kind you use to wrap leftovers or the one that makes up your favorite water bottle, but the tiny, sneaky stuff—microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs). These little troublemakers are everywhere, and science is just starting to figure out how much they’re messing with us. First, let’s start with bottled water. You know, the stuff we buy because it’s “clean” and “pure.” Well, a recent study at the University of California found that, on average, a single liter of bottled water contains about 240,000 particles of MNPs. And 90% of those are nanoplas...2025-02-2605 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #5Let’s talk about water. You know, that thing we all need to survive but sometimes take for granted. Turns out, science is making some pretty big waves (pun intended) in how we clean it, use it, and even think about it. First up, let’s dive into seawater desalination. Because freshwater supplies expected to meet only 40% of global demand by 2030, we’re going to need all the H2O we can get. A team of researchers from Rice University have developed a new purification technology that’s not only more environmentally friendly but also cuts costs by up to...2025-02-1705 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #4For every influencer trying to convince you that micro and nanoplastics are going to be the death of you, your loved ones, and everything in a 10 mile radius, there’s a stack of research that makes them sound like medieval peasants worrying about the end of days because of an eclipse. But they’re more concerned with selling you something than saying “well, the science is unclear about that.”At the Right Filter, we focus on the science. Not just because we’re giant, unrepentant nerds, (which we are) but because, if you’re willing to read enough paper...2025-01-3005 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #3The more we look for plastic, the more we find. And we keep finding it in places that we really really didn’t expect to find it, in forms we weren’t expecting.For example, when you think of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, do you think of a bunch of plastic bags, maybe some gallon jugs mixed in there? Or do you think of a slightly thicker soupy area of the ocean? Because it’s closer to the latter.And a lot of plastic pollution is like that soupy stuff, mostly micro and nano plasti...2025-01-2403 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #2As we do more and more research on PFASs and their impact on humans, it helps to imagine the situation from the biggest scale to the smallest. On the smallest scale, we know that PFASs affect cells and genes. On the biggest, we find correlations between PFAS exposure and various health issues. For example, a recent study by the Keck School of Medicine of USC showed an increase in the rate of certain cancers that are correlated with exposure to PFASs.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-links-pfas-contamination-range-rare.htmlHow much of an increase? Between 2 and 33...2025-01-1605 min
Drip FeedDrip Feed #1In spite of all the social media frothing at the mouth about PFAS, science continues its march. Recently, scientists have identified the 11 genes that are directly affected by PFASs and their siblings.https://phys.org/news/2025-01-scientists-genes-affected-pfas-neurotoxicity.htmlWhat this will eventually let us do is measure how much a human has been affected by these chemicals. See, we’ve managed to prove how they affect things in a lab setting, but the actual impact on something as big and complex as a human body is still in the category of “well, we’re not 10...2025-01-1603 min
Power of Ten with Andy PolaineThejus Chakravarthy – Make Work Suck LessPower of Ten is a podcast hosted by Andy Polaine about design operating at many levels, zooming out from thoughtful detail through to organisational transformation and on to changes in society and the world.
My guest in this episode is Thejus Chakravarthy, an operational consultant that focuses on people, process, and technology, in that order. Currently, he says he has his hands full as the full-time COO of one company and a C-suite consultant for another. His primary focus is on how we can make work suck less. To that end, he spent 15 years designing instructional systems, the last 5...2022-05-0647 min
How This WorksThejus ChakravarthyThis show with Thejus Chakravarthy ranges over a wide variety of topics but along the way we find out about his professional and life experiences in making change in the world.
We start with his origins crowning in a cab in Mumbai, India, the ease in which his right shoulder dislocates after a show once upon a time with his hardcore band Lovers and Killers, the joy of Royal Farm (RoFo) fried chicken, and the brilliance of a 'hot now' Krispy Kreme donut. Skipper and Thejus also get into his two books, Brushfire (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rb4...2021-02-021h 12