Researchers studying cellophane bees found that their nest lining—a silk-and-polyester film resembling conventional plastic—breaks down in soil within about a year. They say its chemistry could guide the design of biodegradable materials [anthropocenemagazine.org][phys.org]. The team collected linings from Colletes inaequalis nests in Tennessee; fresh material was about 73% polyester and 27% silk by weight [anthropocenemagazine.org][thehindu.com]. After four months in soil, polyester made up about 40% of the lining; by 11 months, the lining had degraded enough to crumble [anthropocenemagazine.org][thehindu.com]. The material remained flexible and intact early in the process, protecting developing bees. Researchers want to identify how it degrades so quickly and reproduce those properties in lab-made plastics [anthropocenemagazine.org]. Highlights: • Plastic scale: Hundreds of millions of metric tons of plastic are produced each year, with much of it ending in landfills or natural environments and persisting for decades to centuries [phys.org]. • Nest longevity: Cellophane bees can form aggregations of 10,000 or more nests and return to the same sites for decades without the lining accumulating in the soil [anthropocenemagazine.org]. "Nature has already solved a problem that polymer scientists are still working on: a bioplastic that is chemically and physically similar to conventional plastics but doesn’t persist in the environment." — Jonathan Coote, assistant professor in Virginia Tech University's Department of Sustainable Biomaterials Sources: • Nature already invented biodegradable plastic. Scientists want to reverse engineer it. - anthropocenemagazine.org • Bee nest linings could inspire plastics that break down in soil - phys.org • Cellophane bees produce a kind of plastic that also degrades, study finds - thehindu.com --- 📰 Story aggregated by Kagi News