Summary An unsuspected biomineralization process, which produces intracellular inclusions of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC), was recently discovered in unicellular eukaryotes. These mineral inclusions, called micropearls , can be highly enriched with other alkaline‐earth metals (AEM) such as Sr and Ba. Similar intracellular inclusions of ACC have also been observed in prokaryotic organisms. These comparable biomineralizatio...

Plastics ( n = 3880) have been sampled from 39 beaches of ten Swiss lakes of varying sizes, hydrodynamics, and catchments, with a selection ( n = 598) analysed for potentially hazardous (and regulated) chemical elements (As, Ba, Br, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Sb, Se) by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Plastic objects and fragments with identifiable or unidentifiable origins were present on all beaches surveyed, and were often most abund...