Latest from Fast Company
Fast Company
6 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Can I shop at Big Lots online? Retailer warns of fake websites as stores reopen under new owner
Big Lots has been through a wild ride since the home-goods discount retail chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September. In December 2024, the company announced that it would hold going-out-of-business sales at its remaining store locations. The following month, however, Big Lots announced that Variety Wholesalers—a retail company based in North Carolina—would acquire and operate hundreds of existing Big Lots stores. After a period of remodeling and restocking, Variety Wholesalers has since reopened 219 Big Lots stores in a handful of states. The openings took place in four waves, starting in April and ending in June. The final reopening phase concluded with the reopening of 78 Big Lots stores on June 5. While the return of Big Lots is good news for fans of the brand, it may be exposing some unsuspecting bargain hunters to scams—particularly, for shoppers who prefer to buy things online. Big Lots warns of online scams Earlier this month, Big Lots took to social media to alert customers about the presence of online scams, explaining that its current website has no e-commerce component. 'BIG LOTS! no longer operates any ecommerce website,' the retailer wrote on its Facebook page. 'These are scam websites using our name and logo. Any purchases made through these websites should be IMMEDIATELY reported to your bank or credit card company. Our official website is The post attracted hundreds of comments, with some commenters saying they had fallen victim to the bogus offers. Indeed, scammers have been targeting consumers with online ads impersonating Big Lots. Links within these ads direct hopeful shoppers to fake websites that are not affiliated with the official retailer. Be aware that any advertisements promoting online Big Lots deals are not legitimate. Some products are still listed on the official Big Lots website A section of the retailer's official website highlights products that Big Lots stores actually sell. Although the official Big Lots site does not offer the option for online purchases, its product listings include photos, descriptions, and prices. Jeff King, vice president of sales and marketing for Variety Wholesalers, told Fast Company that the products advertised on the Big Lots website are meant to illustrate the deals available in-store. 'We do have products listed on our website to show the great values on the large variety of products we carry in our stores,' he said. 'We do this to encourage customers to visit our stores and see what deals they can find.' Bottom line: It's essential to be vigilant against online shopping scams. If you're hoping to shop at Big Lots, you'll need to visit a physical store.
Fast Company
6 hours ago
- Health
- Fast Company
Scientists engineer bacteria to turn plastic waste into painkillers
Tales of turning water into wine or weaving straw into gold are one thing, but a new study shows that scientists can transform trash into . . . Tylenol? Scientists at the University of Edinburgh were able to convert plastic waste into paracetamol, aka acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the pain reliever Tylenol. Stranger yet, they pulled off the alchemical feat using the bacteria E. coli. 'We're able to transform a prolific environmental and societal waste into such a globally important medication in a way that's completely impossible, using chemistry alone or using biology alone,' says study coauthor Stephen Wallace, a chemical biotechnologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The research team began with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic found in food packaging and polyester clothing. Using established chemical methods, they broke down the PET plastic into a precursor molecule and then added it into a cell culture of E. coli that was genetically modified. Enzymes in the modified E. coli bacteria were able to convert the plastic precursor into paracetamol 92% of the time. The transformation relies on a chemical process known as a Lossen rearrangement, which can convert one kind of molecule into a different kind of molecule. Scientists have known about the Lossen rearrangement for more than 100 years, but generally observe the phenomenon in a flask or a test tube. The research group is now working with pharmaceutical makers including AstraZeneca, one of the study's sponsors, to replicate the same chemical transformations on a larger scale. The new research isn't the first to observe the way that bacteria can be deployed to usefully break down plastic. Researchers have previously studied how wastewater bacteria found in urban waterways use a special enzyme to chew up plastic trash and convert it into carbon-based food. As we grapple with the cascading environmental and health effects that decades of proliferating plastics have wrought on the planet, bacteria capable of converting plastic into harmless or even useful molecules is a promising area of research.
Fast Company
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Fast Company
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for $787 million over defamation
California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, accusing the conservative news network of defamation. The suit, which seeks $787 million in damages, argues that coverage on Fox News misrepresented a phone call between Newsom and President Trump in a way designed to damage Newsom's reputation. The phone call in question took place after 1 a.m. on June 7, prior to Trump's activation of the National Guard in California. On June 10, when a reporter asked if he and Newsom had spoken, the president claimed that he had called Newsom 'a day ago' to tell him to do a better job handling protests in Los Angeles. National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of June 8. Newsom disputed Trump's claim that they had spoken the previous day on social media. 'There was no call,' Newsom said. 'Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to.' In a prime-time segment, Fox News host Jesse Watters stated that Newsom lied about receiving a phone call from President Trump. The show included a graphic that read 'Gavin lied about Trump's call' and featured an image of Trump's call history with Newsom, showing the June 7 call. 'Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?' Watters asked during the segment. The lawsuit claims that the mischaracterization of the situation, namely the claim that Newsom lied about having a phone call with Trump, could damage Newsom's political career, which is widely expected to include a run for president. The $787 million that Newsom seeks in damages is no coincidence. Fox News paid that amount to settle a prior defamation lawsuit from voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems after the network spread debunked conspiracy theories about the company's equipment. 'Unfortunately, the past two years have shown that the Dominion settlement did not serve as the deterrent many had predicted, as Fox has continued to launder the stream of false information flowing out of the White House,' the lawsuit states.
Fast Company
8 hours ago
- Health
- Fast Company
Your food is full of microplastics—and now we know why
A study published this week delves into the mystery of how the plastic objects we interact with daily shed tiny particles that creep into our bodies, brains and guts. While the scientific focus has long been on how microplastics pollute our environment and impact wildlife, researchers are increasingly raising alarms about how the same contaminants can wreak havoc in the human body. The new research, published in the journal NPJ Science of Food, wove together data from 100 previous papers that studied microplastics, nanoplastics and plastic particles. The results were compiled into an open database published by the Food Packaging Forum, a Swiss nonprofit that examines chemicals in food packaging. Microplastics and nanoplastics are plastic particles in the millimeter to nanometer range, with the latter causing even more concern among scientists because their tiny size makes them able to slip into human cells. 'This is the first systematic evidence map to investigate the role of the normal and intended use of food contact articles in the contamination of foodstuffs with MNPs [microplastics and nanoplastics],' lead author of and Scientific Communication Officer at the Food Packaging Forum Dr. Lisa Zimmermann said. 'Food contact articles are a relevant source of MNPs in foodstuffs; however, their contribution to human MNP exposure is underappreciated.' How we interact with plastic matters The new study looked at a broad range of 'food contact articles' that included water bottles, cutting boards, food processing equipment and packaging ranging from food wrappers to tea bags. Most food packaging contains plastic, even many things that seem like they don't, like the paper that wraps around cold cuts and cheese, cardboard takeout containers and glass bottles and jars, which often have a plastic-coated closure. The authors focused on how everyday objects used as intended can shed microplastics and how that shedding can worsen over the course of repeated interactions. Across 14 different studies, microplastic shedding was found to increase with repeated uses, including screwing a reusable water bottle lid on and off, washing a melamine dish or putting plastic tableware into contact with hot foods 'These findings are relevant for reused plastic [food contact articles] and should be considered when assessing the safety of FCAs across use cycles,' the authors wrote. Based on their research, and its blind spots, they stressed the need for future studies to delve more deeply into how repeated interactions, heating and washing affects how much microplastic is shed by kitchenware and food packaging that most of the world's population might come into contact with countless times each day. The authors also found that the bulk of the research on microplastics focused on only a few kinds of objects that come into contact with food and drinks, like water bottles and tea bags. Similarly, more studies focused on PET and polypropylene over other common plastics, leaving a lot of unknowns about how much plastic is being shed by food packaging made out of other materials. Food and beverage containers can expose the human body to microplastics every time we interact with them but relatively little is still known about how that process works. That mystery is an ominous one considering how ubiquitous plastics are globally in food packaging and preparation and how their presence is increasingly linked to reproductive, digestive and respiratory problems and potentially even colon and lung cancer. Plastics appear to have no trouble finding their way into the human body. Another recent study found that the adult brain can contain a plastic spoon's worth of microplastics and nanoplastics, an amount that's seven to 30 times higher than what might be found in the liver or kidneys. Those kind of findings show that it's imperative for future research to track down how all of that plastic is finding its way into the human body and what exactly it does once it gets there.
Fast Company
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Navigating the unknown: Jon Gluck on his cancer journey and embracing uncertainty
This week on The Most Innovative Podcast, Josh and Yaz sit down with Fast Company senior editor Jon Gluck to discuss his powerful memoir that explores the unexpected twists and emotional terrain of his battle with cancer.
