Microplastics have been found in human testicles, with researchers saying the discovery might be linked to declining sperm counts in men.

The scientists tested 23 human testes, as well as 47 testes from pet dogs. They found microplastic pollution in every sample.

The human testicles had been preserved and so their sperm count could not be measured. However, the sperm count in the dogs’ testes could be assessed and was lower in samples with higher contamination with PVC. The study demonstrates a correlation but further research is needed to prove microplastics cause sperm counts to fall.

Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades, with chemical pollution such as pesticides implicated by many studies. Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood, placentas and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.

That's easy.

At least you're having better weather than us here in the UK.
Autumn started in October and still hasn't ended it feels like.
Mental. We have had 1 day of decent weather since: 13th of April.

We’re thrilled to announce that Coinbase has selected Lightspark to bring the Bitcoin Lightning Network to its platform. We are working with the Coinbase team on technical integration.    

We’re delighted to be part of bringing one of our industry's most impactful and significant companies to Lightning at the perfect time. Coinbase customers will benefit from instant, cheaper transfers, and this integration will pave the way for more collaboration between the companies in the months and years to come.

At Lightspark, we’ve been working incredibly hard for almost two years to build our platform as the best enterprise-grade entry point to the Lightning Network on the market. Our software and services allow the most demanding institutions to reliably tap into the Lightning network to enable near real-time, low-cost Bitcoin transactions.

Lightspark effectively removed most of the complexity that typically comes with implementing and managing a Lightning node and sending/receiving transactions reliably. Lightspark SDKs, APIs, and developer tools allow a seamless and simplified integration of the Lightning Network. At the same time, Lightspark Predict, an AI-based smart engine, optimizes liquidity requirements and routing in real time to reach the highest transaction success rates and finality times across the network.

Coinbase will be using Lightspark’s remote-key signing implementation — with the Lightning signing keys entirely held by Coinbase, while Lightspark hosts their Lightning node. This integration allows Coinbase to benefit from a scalable, reliable, and fully optimized node infrastructure that provides a deep suite of functionality through a simple and intuitive interface. Product, engineering, and operations teams at Coinbase can focus on creating the very best end-to-end experiences for their customers without the distraction that comes from the complexities of managing and optimizing a large-scale Lightning implementation.

“Coinbase is committed to making the global financial system faster and more efficient,” said Shan Aggarwal, VP of Corporate & Business Development. “We’re excited to partner with Lightspark to eliminate payment barriers and enable faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions through support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network.”

This is another significant milestone for the Lightning Network. Lighting up all Coinbase touchpoints with Lightning will profoundly impact the overall network usage at a time when it’s most needed, given the rising price of Bitcoin and Bitcoin L1 fees.

Lightspark integrations will pave the way for additional payment use cases in the near future by allowing more liquidity to be converted in and out of Bitcoin from fiat and cryptocurrencies. We’re excited to be well-positioned to contribute to this transition.