At a time when synthetic plastic has polluted nearly every corner of the globe and appeared in food and in the human body, Northeastern University researchers have developed a new plastic that dissolves in water.
“The kind of impact that human-made materials are making on the living world is resulting in climate change, pollution and more,” says Avinash Manjula-Basavanna, a senior research scientist at Northeastern University. “One of the ways that we are able to address this is to make materials sustainable and also make materials which are smart or intelligent.”
Manjula-Basavanna and Neel S. Joshi, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern, call their bioplastic MECHS — an acronym for Mechanical Engineered Living Materials with Compostability, Healability and Scalability.
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Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
