A two-and-a-half-year-old girl is the youngest person to have received a bioengineered organ — a windpipe in this case — that was made from plastic fibers and human cells. The successful transplant of the synthetic windpipe on the girl, a Korean-Canadian named Hannah Warren, may give regenerative medicine a huge boost. The surgery, which took [...]
Common Plastics in Environment Absorb Contaminants
January 30, 2013 By 2 Comments
A California study shows that the most commonly produced plastics that are littered in the environment are also the ones that absorb the most chemicals, a finding that poses a greater risk for marine animals and those that eat them. The absorption ability of these plastics continued for longer periods of time than previously thought. [...]
Plastic Lumber Tests Stronger Than Wood Lumber
November 2, 2012 By 3 Comments
A company in Minnesota may have just developed plastic lumber that, for the first time, has surpassed wood lumber in strength and perhaps durability. A plastic substitute equal to the strength of wood lumber has been a holy grail for plastics researchers and manufacturers for quite some time, reports Finance & Commerce. But the founder, Paul Schmitt, [...]
Plastic Scaffold Used in Successful Artificial Trachea Implant
September 25, 2012 By 1 Comment
Plastic scaffolds have formed the foundation for new tracheas that were successfully transplanted into patients who lost theirs following car accidents. Nanofiber Solutions of Columbus, OH, designed and built the nanofiber laryngotracheal scaffolds to match the size of each patient’s natural larynx and trachea. Once the scaffold was built, the patients then needed human tissue [...]
Instructions on How to Clean Plastics: Add Sunlight
July 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
As you prepare for the backyard barbeque, and you have invited over some friends, you pull out the plastic lawn chairs from the shed. Ugh, you think. They sure got moldy over the winter and spring. Not to worry. They’ll be easy to clean. You’ll just put them in the sun for a few hours. [...]
Polymer Solutions Featured on News Program
July 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
Polymer Solutions was the focus of a news segment produced by WDBJ7, a CBS affiliate from Roanoke, VA, during the World Polymer Congress, held on Virginia Tech’s campus June 24-29. Based near the school campus in Blacksburg, VA, Polymer Solutions tests medical devices, plastics, adhesives, and rubbers to help manufacturers learn whether their products have the [...]
Plastic Reduces Glare, Reflection
June 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A surface that hardly reflects any light? That’s what researchers in Singapore have designed. Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research and its commercial partners have developed a plastic that reflects just 0.09% to 0.2% of visible light hitting its surface. Currently, anti-reflective and anti-glare plastics on the market have a reported reflectivity of about [...]
Durable Plastic Can Be Environmentally Friendly, Too
June 11, 2012 By 1 Comment
When many research efforts are trying to find ways to make plastic more biodegradable, researchers in Israel are finding ways to make plastic super-hard. These new plastics could replace steel, be produced less expensively, and help the environment. Prof. Moshe Kol of Tel Aviv University’s School of Chemistry is developing super-strength polypropylene — one of [...]
Study Links Phthalates to Diabetes
April 17, 2012 By 2 Comments
High blood levels of phthalates — chemicals that are commonly used to soften plastics — may double the risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults, Swedish researchers are reporting. While the research is disputed, the research could add pressure to conduct more tests to determine what are the chemicals’ comprehensive effects on human health, [...]
Bricks From Recycled Plastic
July 12, 2011 By 2 Comments
The big bad wolf blew down houses made from straw and sticks. But was his huffing and puffing thwarted by the third little pig because the house was made from plastic bricks? Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Ltd. has made it as a finalist in this year’s Asian Innovation Awards, given out by The Wall Street Journal, [...]
