



Previous research has found evidence of plastic particles in human blood, lungs, gut, feces, and reproductive tissues like the placenta and testes. But the potential health effects of these tiny plastic bits are still unproven and unknown. The small size of nanoparticles has made them especially difficult to detect and study.
To gain more insight into nanoplastics, a research team led by Drs. Wei Min and Beizhan Yan of Columbia University modified a powerful imaging technique that Min co-invented 15 years ago with NIH support. The technique, called stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, is now widely used to visualize small molecules in living cells. The method works by focusing two laser beams on samples to stimulate certain molecules to emit unique detectable light signals. Unlike many other methods, SRS microscopy does not depend on labeling specific molecules to find them.
For the new study, which was supported by NIH, the researchers developed a new SRS approach to detect micro- and nanoplastics at the single-particle level. After confirming that the technique could rapidly spot plastic particles smaller than 1 μm, they developed an algorithm based on machine learning to detect seven common types of plastic.
To test their new high-throughput imaging platform, the team analyzed the micro- and nanoplastics in three popular brands of bottled water. Results were reported on January 8, 2024, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers found that, on average, a liter of bottled water included about 240,000 tiny pieces of plastic. About 90% of these plastic fragments were nanoplastics. This total was 10 to 100 times more plastic particles than seen in earlier studies, which mostly focused on larger microplastics.
The water contained particles of all seven types of plastic. The most common was polyamide, a type of nylon that’s often used to help filter and purify water. An abundance of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was also detected. This might be expected, since PET is used to make bottles for water, soda, and many other drinks and foods. Other identified plastics included polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate, and polystyrene, which is also used in water purification. The method identified millions of additional particles that did not match the seven categories of plastic. It’s not yet clear if these tiny particles are nanoplastics or other substances.
| 1 | La Bohème | 4:01 |
| 2 | Plus Bleu Que Tes Yeux + Edith Piaf | 3:19 |
| 3 | Emmenez-Moi | 3:39 |
| 4 | Et Pourtant | 2:39 |
| 5 | Sa Jeneusse From 2.09 Hier Encore | 4:26 |
| 6 | Non, Je N'ai Rien Oublié (With Lyrics) | 6:33 |
| 7 | París - "La Boheme" () | 3:11 |
| 8 | Et Pourtant - (Lyrics) | 2:52 |
| 9 | Yesterday When I Was Young | 3:34 |
| 10 | Et Pourtant | 2:40 |
| 11 | C'est Fini | 2:42 |
| 12 | Ave Maria | 2:12 |
| 13 | La Boheme - Aznavour +Josh Groban | 9:35 |
| 14 | Hier Encore - Paroles | 3:24 |
| 15 | Isabelle | 3:14 |
| 16 | Muppet Show The Old Fashioned Way | 2:59 |
| 17 | Que C'est Triste Venice - Lyrics +Español | 2:38 |
| 18 | Tu T'laisses Aller 1962 | 3:30 |
| 19 | Que C'est Triste Venise | 2:38 |
| 20 | C'est Fini | 2:46 |
| 21 | Je M'voyais Deja Lyrics | 3:17 |
| 22 | For Me Formidable | 2:20 |
| 23 | Emmenez Moi - Paroles | 3:32 |
| 24 | La Boheme Paroles+ English Lyrics | 4:05 |
| 25 | Comme Ils Disent 1991 | 4:42 |
| 26 | Hier Encore | 2:19 |
Aznavour sang for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events. In response to the 1988 Armenian earthquake, he founded the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Lévon Sayan. In 2008, he was granted Armenian citizenship and was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland the following year, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva.












Inoue, a bandleader, drummer, and Electone keyboardist, specialized in leading sing-alongs at nightclubs in
Sannomiya, the entertainment district of the city of Kobe. In 1970, he
and six bandmates played instruments in fancy drinking establishments to
accompany middle-aged businessmen who would sing traditional Japanese
songs. He claimed to have first thought of the idea of a karaoke-style
machine when he was asked by a prominent client to play for him on an
overnight trip to an onsen.
Not being able to do so, he instead provided a tape of his
accompaniment to the client. Realizing its potential, he thought of
merging these pre-taped accompaniments with a jukebox.
Lacking the skills to make the machine himself, one of his
bandmates introduced him to a friend who owned an electronics shop. He
described his idea to him and commissioned 11 home-made machines which
he called "8 Juke." Each machine cost around $425 per unit and consisted
of a box containing an amplifier, a microphone, a coin box, and a car stereo which used specially-made 8-track tapes. The machines metered out several minutes of singing time and used ¥100 coins.
He initially recorded his own versions of popular songs with his bandmates for the tapes. Starting from 1971, Inoue loaned the machines to establishments for free in exchange for a portion of the monthly earnings from the machines. He placed the first 8 Jukes in Sannomiya's "snack bars", but they initially failed to take off. Inoue then hired hostesses to ostentatiously sing on them, which successfully sparked interest. This also caused a great deal of friction with Inoue's fellow musicians, who saw it as drawing customers away from them.
When profits improved at around four years of operation, he hired professional musicians and rented a recording studio to create the 8-tracks for the machines. He made the songs in keys that made them easier for casual singers. As such he also included a rudimentary reverb function to help mask singers' deficiencies. By this time, the number of units he rented had increased from the initial eleven to around 25,000. Club owners from Kobe had started bringing his machines to new clubs in Osaka
which became the birthplace of the karaoke boom in Japan. He also managed to convince large record labels to include their songs in the tracks for the 8 Jukes. For these reasons, Inoue is often considered to be the inventor of the modern business model for karaoke.
Inoue never patented his machine. While initially successful and earning approximately half a million dollars a year, Inoue lost interest in the business. He eventually handed over the company to his brother. By the 1980s, the idea of coin-operated sing-along machines was picked up by larger Japanese corporations who started manufacturing commercial versions of their own with better technologies like LaserDiscs.

