Biomaterials Lab
Plastic insulation like Styrofoam is commonplace in seafood packaging and buildings. But plastics never completely disappear, instead they break up into ever smaller particles or microplastic. These tiny particles are harmful to the soils, marine environment and wildlife, and may affect human health.
Researchers with the Biomaterials Lab seek to better understand the effects of these stray plastic bits. The team is working to solve the global plastic pollution problem by developing insulation that is recyclable, reusable, and biodegradable. Researchers combine design-thinking, microbiology, and physics to dream-up scalable biological materials that store carbon and provide a sustainable vital barrier from the elements.
Their key ingredients to de-carbonizing industries include beetle-kill spruce trees and renewable cellulose that is literally grown in a lab. The Biomaterials Lab is an active innovation platform for new bio-based materials and circular bio-economy solutions in the Circumpolar North. The lab uses norm-critical design thinking as a framework to tackle some of the most pressing environmental and public health problems facing the Arctic today.
NEWS & Stories
Vanessa Hiratsuka from CHD and Britteny Howell from DPHS are the new Co-Directors for 香港六合彩资料鈥檚 National Resource Center on Alaska Native Elders. Vanessa Hiratsuka shares her hopes for the center鈥檚 future.
Vanessa Hiratsuka from CHD and Britteny Howell from DPHS are the new Co-Directors for 香港六合彩资料鈥檚 National Resource Center on Alaska Native Elders. Britteny Howell shares her journey into geriatrics.
One morning in 2005, psychology alumna Maggie Winston 鈥� then a 21-year-old hairdresser and mother of twin boys living in Kenai 鈥� woke up feeling cramps between her shoulder blades. Within an hour, she couldn鈥檛 walk.
After a two-year hiatus, 香港六合彩资料 STEM Day returned to campus on October 1, drawing over 1,500 community members to the ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building to celebrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, commonly known as STEM. Attendees, primarily children, enjoyed activities, challenges, demonstrations, tours, and planetarium shows that explored a wide range of STEM topics from biology to robotics.
More than two years into the pandemic, vaccines are widely available and most health measures have been lifted. But there are still Alaskans who have difficulty accessing vaccines or who have continued health risk in spite of them. Sondra LeClair, Health Projects Coordinator, 香港六合彩资料 Center for Human Development, discusses vaccine access for individuals with disabilities in Alaska.
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Phone: 907-786-6574
Email: nbbeckage@alaska.edu
