One word: bioplastics
(PhysOrg.com) -- Every year, more than 250 billion pounds of plastic are produced worldwide. Much of it ends up in the world's oceans, a fact that troubles MIT biology professor Anthony Sinskey.
Scientists develop technology to produce sugar from photosynthetic bacteria
Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard and Harvard Medical School have engineered photosynthetic bacteria to produce simple sugars and lactic acid. This innovation could lead ...
Study: Biodegradable products may be bad for the environment
Research from North Carolina State University shows that so-called biodegradable products are likely doing more harm than good in landfills, because they are releasing a powerful greenhouse gas as they break down.
Perils of plastics: Risks to human health and the environment
Plastics surround us. A vital manufacturing ingredient for nearly every existing industry, these materials appear in a high percentage of the products we use every day. Although modern life would be hard to imagine without ...
Researchers inject nanofiber spheres carrying cells into wounds to grow tissue
For the first time, scientists have made star-shaped, biodegradable polymers that can self-assemble into hollow, nanofiber spheres, and when the spheres are injected with cells into wounds, these spheres biodegrade, ...
Study shows deepwater oil plume in Gulf degraded by microbes
In the aftermath of the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a dispersed oil plume was formed at a depth between 3,600 and 4,000 feet and extending some 10 miles out from ...
Israeli team eyes jellyfish for super-absorbent material
Scientists unveil chocolate-fueled race car
(AP) -- Scientists unveiled on Tuesday what they hope will be one of the world's fastest biofuel vehicles, powered by waste from chocolate factories and made partly from plant fibers.
As strong as an insect's shell
Harvard researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have come up with a tough, low-cost, biodegradable material inspired by insects hard outer shells. The materials ...
BioSolar announces first sale of BioBacksheet—solar panel part made from cotton and beans
To restore vision, implant preps and seeds a damaged eye
Researchers trying to restore vision damaged by disease have found promise in a tiny implant that sows seeds of new cells in the eye.
Implants mimic infection to rally immune system against tumors
Bioengineers at Harvard University have shown that small plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin can reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors.
A coating for life: Biodegradable fibers advance stent technology and brain surgery, then disappear
Stents that keep weakened and flabby arteries from collapsing have been true life-savers. But after six months, those stents are no longer needed -- once the arteries are strengthened, they become unnecessary. ...
Microbial factories: Researchers harness bacteria to produce energy, clean up environment
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the search for answers to the planet's biggest challenges, some MIT researchers are turning to its tiniest organisms: bacteria.