How do we turn plants into plastics and polymers? Find out in this episode as Taylor leaves Utah and ventures to Washington to sit down with Eleftheria Roumeli, an assistant professor at the University of Washington and researcher in the field of biomatter. Learn all about how a fish tank full of "gross" bacteria can be used to create complex and surprisingly strong shapes or about how Eleftheria's research group forages around local shores for seaweed to get the necessary biological materials. Finally we cap it off with a discussion about the environmental impact these materials have and how we should be evaluating their footprint.

Relevant Articles:

• Eleftheria's Research Group [LINK]
• Fabricating Strong and Stiff Bioplastics from Whole Spirulina Cells [LINK]
• The role of biomolecular building blocks on the cohesion of biomatter plastics [LINK]
• Progress in Sustainable Polymers from Biological Matter [LINK]

This Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks, Andrew Falkowski, & Jared Duffy.

Keywords: Plants Biomatter Biopolymers Bioplastics