alt Hacker NewsChemist Identifies Mystery 'Blobs' Washing Up in Newfoundland
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> a spongy interior and range in size from a coin to a dinner plate, have been found for miles along Placentia Bay
For a moment I misread that as washing up on Placenta Bay, which would have added a whole extra level of odd.
Come to think of it, that blend of unsettling reproductive metaphors and coastal desolation would fit in the game Death Stranding.
TL;DR: Rubber. Industrial adhesive. Nobody knows why this is there or who is responsible yet.
> I’m quite confident that the sample that I handled was PVA butylene rubber,” [Dr. Kozak] said in a phone interview, describing a mix of synthetic rubber and polyvinyl acetate, known as PVA. That polymer, he said, is “the active ingredient in white glue — the kind of white glue you have at home is a very dilute, kid-friendly version of this stuff.”
> Globs of the white sticky substance, which have a spongy interior and range in size from a coin to a dinner plate, have been found for miles along Placentia Bay since at least September
> Dr. Kozak said that one of the first things he noticed was that the blob had “a kind of petrochemical odor to it, kind of like if you walk down the turpentine aisle of your hardware store.”
I live in rural Newfoundland. There was a Newfoundland post on 4chan /pol/ today and now this. Not something I see very often.
We have some very unusual community names. Come by chance, Goobies, Cow Head, Grannies Hole, Blow me Down, Spread Eagle, and of course the famous Dildo.
This reminds me of a very old video game "Science Sleuths"[1] I ran into as a kid, where you had to identify a blob on the beach.
It's probably PVA rubber. They don't know where it came from.
Interestingly something similar (but chemically different) happened in Australia recently too: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/bondi-beach-tar-balls-...
So, butylene rubber, a petroleum-based industrial adhesive. Meanwhile, Ottawa thinks it's plant based.
On the other side of the world, mystery “balls” washing up in Australia appear to have a very different origin:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/what-were-black-balls...
Didn't hit the jackpot this time, keep trying. The stuff they are chasing is more valuable than gold.
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I had hoped from the headline that it would shed some light on the Oakville blobs[0], but no such luck. The images don't look remotely the same material.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakville,_Washington#Oakville_...