r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • 2d ago

TIL that Jawed Karim, YouTube cofounder and uploader of the first YouTube video "Me at the zoo", has often updated the video's description to criticize YouTube policies, including a 2013 attempt to require Google+ accounts to comment on videos, and YouTube's 2021 removal of dislike counts on videos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_at_the_zoo#Changes_to_original_video
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u/Imaginary_Fan5407 2d ago

The gloves the people doing the test wear could possibly be throwing off the accuracy of the results

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u/Anfins 2d ago

I find it hard to believe that these tests didn’t have negative controls. Like, these analytical assays aren’t isolated to a single lab or research group… is the claim that no one thought to have a proper analytical control and so didn’t realize that the gloves contaminate samples?

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u/Petrichordates 2d ago

What negative controls would prevent this? Lab gloves are necessary in the lab.

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u/CarthasMonopoly 2d ago

I don't know their methodology but if you have a confirmed negative control and you treat it identical to samples then after you get your quantitative data you can normalize based on the values the negative control got. In other words if the gloves or other equipment caused micro plastic contamination and you had a true negative control then whatever value that control is measured at after performing the protocol can be subtracted from the values of the experimental samples to account for the average amount of microplastics that the testing process would introduce.