A team of scientists has developed a method for creating a new class of plastic materials that are potentially more recyclable than single-use plastics.
Researchers discovered a way to turn superglue into strong, clear plastic that can be made into many shapes.
Allison Christy
While pills are more practical than injections or infusions, digestion in the stomach prevents many drugs from being taken orally. Better drug design could change this.
Plastic trash accumulates in trees and shrubs along the Los Angeles River.
Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Plastic is made from oil and natural gas, which started out as fossilized plant and animal material. But buried deep underground for millions of years, those materials changed in important ways.
Musculoskeletal injuries can cause severe pain and lead to greater problems.
PeopleImages/E+ via Getty Images
De-icing salts help us get around in winter, but they corrode cars, crack roads and contaminate rivers and lakes. Scientists are working to develop better options by imitating natural antifreezes.
A block of sand particles held together by living cells.
The University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science
Researchers are turning microbes into microscopic construction crews by altering their DNA to make them produce building materials. The work could lead to more sustainable buildings.
Gardeners use water crystals to drought-proof their plants.
Shutterstock
Water crystals help drought-proof plants. But these tiny polymers are leaving gardeners concerned.
Clinical trials using immune cells engineered through synthetic biology have been shown to push some patients into remission from blood cancer.
from www.shutterstock.com
Right now, you’re living in a kind of industrial revolution – where biotechnology, information technology, manufacturing and automation all come together to form synthetic biology.
Research is yielding strategies for making plastics greener and more sustainable. But without support as they scale up, new versions will struggle to compete with well-established synthetic plastics.
A postcard from the 1950s advertises a variety Tupperware products.
Thomas Hawk
Silicon is cheap and a good semiconductor, but it’s bulky and rigid. Using organic polymers as semiconductors could yield solar panels with the physical characteristics of plastics.
Molecular machines are ready to join forces and take on real-world work.
Chenfeng Ke
Research on molecular machines won last year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now scientists have figured out a way to get these tiny molecules to join forces and collaborate on real work on a macro scale.
Freshly squeezed: an apeeling opportunity for renewable chemicals.
Andrés Nieto Porras/Flickr
The orange juice industry throws away a half of the fruit needed to make juice. Could this be used as an alternative to chemicals derived from crude oil?
Inside Boeing’s Dreamliner: tomorrow’s polymers today.
Jordan Tan
The New York World’s Fair of 1939-40 was one of the greatest expos the world had ever seen. Visitors to Flushing Meadow Park in Queens were invited to see the “world of tomorrow” giving them a first glimpse…
They’re waterproof and tough – not to mention colourful – but plastic notes were developed for their unforgeability.
Lis Ferla/Flickr
Welcome to CSIRO Inventions, a series looking at the discoveries and innovations borne from Australia’s national science agency. In this first instalment, we outline the story behind the plastic money…
A unique cutting-edge carbon fibre research facility Carbon Nexus officially opened at Deakin University in Geelong last week. It houses laboratories, a pilot scale carbon fibre line and a smaller single-tow…