S16E05: Bioplastics

Jenny and Solange are joined by conservation scientist Panagiotis Morfis as we talk bioplastics: what are they, where do they crop up, and how can we look after them? Also tune in for a review of ‘Experimental Design and Scientific Data Analysis’ from Jenny. 01:03 Feeling out of our depth is okay 05:00 What ARE bioplastics? 07:25 Information and identification 14:09 Bringing in the science 17:06 3D printing 25:28 Survey time! 29:46 3D printers in every home 31:07 The place of 3D printers in conservation 38:51 A return to making 48:44 Review: Experimental Design and Scientific Data Analysis Show Notes: - S02E05 Modern Materials (our old plastics episode!): https://thecword.show/2017/10/18/s02e05-modern-materials/ - Research overview from Panos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vNefVxMUH2urWH62RSkoMkJ6LrfSxVo/view?usp=sharing - FTIR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier-transform_infrared_spectroscopy - Raman spectroscopy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raman_spectroscopy - Liquid chromatography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_liquid_chromatography - Panos’ survey: https://forms.office.com/r/XJv81gneMW - Experimental Design and Scientific Data Analysis: https://www.routledge.com/Experimental-Design-and-Scientific-Data-Analysis/Skipper-Skipper/p/book/9781032501635 Recommended Reading from Panos: - ‘Sustainability at Christmas: Considering single use items, traditional plastics and bioplastics’: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/design-innovation/sustainability-at-christmas - MoDiP projects: https://www.modip.ac.uk/projects - A curator’s guide to plastics: https://www.modip.ac.uk/projects/curators-guide-plastics Support us on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/thecword Hosted by Jenny Mathiasson, Solange Masher and Panagiotis (Panos) Morfis. Intro and outro music by DDmyzik, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. A Wooden Dice production, 2025.