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National Geographic explorer and grantee Gregg Treinish wants everyone to know about the hidden toxic cost of synthetic fabrics. Tiny, invisible microplastics are entering our waterways straight from our washing machines. About 2,000 synthetic particles are released from washing a single polyester fleece jacket. All clothing items—including cotton and wool—shed micro-fibers when washed, but the natural fibers biodegrade. Synthetic particles don't degrade and can absorb toxins while traveling through the waterways. If they're eaten by small organisms, such as fish, they can bioaccumulate and end up on our dinner plates. Read more about how you can minimize microplastics' impact on the environmentMore from Gregg TreinishClick here to read more about microplastics in the ocean

VMmbD TIL that the USS Gerald R Ford, America's newest aircraft carrier - and the world's largest - doesn't have any urinals because every bathroom is gender neutral
LQ0yV TIL the navigator Henry Hudson was cast adrift by mutineers, along with his son and six others in 1611, in Hudson Bay. They were never seen again.
e06p5 TIL that the drink Crystal Pepsi was killed in the US due to a "kamikaze" marketing campaign by Coke. Coke created the drink Tab Clear, designed to be unpopular, and marketed it so that consumers would conflate the two drinks even though they were not similar. It worked and both were pulled in 1994.
eNX5 TIL In 2011, a team at the U.S. Department of Energy hacked into a one of the most commonly used electronic voting machines and concluded in their report: “anyone with $26 in parts and an eighth-grade science education would be able to manipulate the outcome of an election.”
OGlZ4 TIL Romans organized many expeditions in subsaharan Africa, western expeditions, which crossed the Sahara desert, reached as far south as modern Nigeria while eastern expeditions, which followed the Nile upstream in search of its source, went as far south as Uganda and likely reached Lake Victoria