One reason plastic waste persists in the environment is because there’s not much that can eat it. The chemical structure of most polymers is stable and different enough from existing food sources that ...

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 ...

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 ...

The bacterium Bacillus subtilis can be found anywhere from soil to a human’s gastrointestinal tract. Known as hay or grass bacillus, B. subtilis is often used as an agricultural plant to deter pests.

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 ...

Solving a riddle that has confounded biologists since bacterial spores — inert, sleeping bacteria — were first described more than 150 years ago, researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered ...

Facing extreme conditions such as starvation and stress, some bacteria enter a dormant state in which life processes stop. Biologists have discovered how they assess environmental conditions for a ...

A new type of bioplastic could help reduce the plastic industry's environmental footprint. Researchers have developed a biodegradable form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filled with bacterial ...