Getting microbes to eat plastic is a frequently touted solution to our growing waste problem, but making the approach practical is tricky. A new technique that impregnates plastic with the spores of ...

Researchers led by a team at the University of California San Diego have developed a biodegradable form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that could help reduce the plastic industry’s environmental ...

Hundreds of millions of metric tons of plastic are created and discarded every year. The vast majority are petroleum-based, and they do not naturally degrade. Unless plastic is recycled, and very few ...

Strips of plain TPU (top) and "living" TPU (bottom) at different stages of decomposition over five months of being in compost. A new type of bioplastic could help reduce the plastic industry’s ...

The world has a big plastic problem that it's yet to fix. We're trying to reduce our reliance on plastic, but that's seemingly impossible in modern society. The material is too important for our daily ...

Bacteria form teams to hunt and survive, but lazy cheaters always try to freeload without contributing. Groundbreaking IISc ...

When the going gets tough for certain bacteria, they form into spores that can withstand the harshest of environments. Scientists have now utilized that fact to produce "living plastic" that ...

(Nanowerk News) Bacterial spores are one of nature’s most resilient organisms. These tiny, seed-like structures form when bacteria enter a dormant state to survive unfavorable conditions. They can ...

That innocent bowl of leftover rice on your counter isn't as harmless as it looks. Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause two different types of food poisoning ...