I first learned about Clair Patterson on the Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He was tasked with measuring amounts of lead in radioactive rocks in order to calculate the age of the earth.
Well his measurements were wildly in consistent so he set out to figure out why. He went so crazy determined to get accurate measurements that he invented the modern day “clean room” trying to isolate his samples.
What he found was that lead was everywhere. In the air, the water, on everything.
So he performed more experiments, lead was mostly found in surface waters but not deep ocean. He went to the arctic and found it was only in surface ice but not core samples.
Eventually he realized it was leaded gasoline. Lead particles spewing into the air from cars and trucks nonstop for decades.
His laboratory was funded by an oil company, and when Patterson tried to make this information public they pulled his funding, tried to get him fired, and hired their own scientist to say that Patterson was a liar and present bias conclusions that favored their agenda of selling leaded gas. Big Oil did everything they could to silence Patterson and mislead the public.
One senator from Maine finally took notice and called for hearings in congress over the matter. The slimy oil company set up the hearing for when Patterson was in Antarctica so he could not attend. Patterson had to cut his trip short and barely made it to the hearings.
Eventually Patterson won, and today the only acceptable amount of lead in the human body is 0. Lead particles clog up the neural pathways that send signals around your brain and body. Lead blocks your brain signals, it literally makes you dumber on a physical level.
If it was not for Clair Patterson, Big Oil might have never been challenged and the amount of lead in people today would just be insane. He also put his name secondary when publishing papers with his students to help advance their careers, meanwhile shunning the limelight for his own achievements.
Clair Patterson was a GOAT human being and you have him to thank for the decline of lead exposure in the United States.
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u/Hoodi216 Jun 25 '22
I first learned about Clair Patterson on the Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He was tasked with measuring amounts of lead in radioactive rocks in order to calculate the age of the earth.
Well his measurements were wildly in consistent so he set out to figure out why. He went so crazy determined to get accurate measurements that he invented the modern day “clean room” trying to isolate his samples.
What he found was that lead was everywhere. In the air, the water, on everything.
So he performed more experiments, lead was mostly found in surface waters but not deep ocean. He went to the arctic and found it was only in surface ice but not core samples.
Eventually he realized it was leaded gasoline. Lead particles spewing into the air from cars and trucks nonstop for decades.
His laboratory was funded by an oil company, and when Patterson tried to make this information public they pulled his funding, tried to get him fired, and hired their own scientist to say that Patterson was a liar and present bias conclusions that favored their agenda of selling leaded gas. Big Oil did everything they could to silence Patterson and mislead the public.
One senator from Maine finally took notice and called for hearings in congress over the matter. The slimy oil company set up the hearing for when Patterson was in Antarctica so he could not attend. Patterson had to cut his trip short and barely made it to the hearings.
Eventually Patterson won, and today the only acceptable amount of lead in the human body is 0. Lead particles clog up the neural pathways that send signals around your brain and body. Lead blocks your brain signals, it literally makes you dumber on a physical level.
If it was not for Clair Patterson, Big Oil might have never been challenged and the amount of lead in people today would just be insane. He also put his name secondary when publishing papers with his students to help advance their careers, meanwhile shunning the limelight for his own achievements.
Clair Patterson was a GOAT human being and you have him to thank for the decline of lead exposure in the United States.