By Rice University,First Published,May 19, 2026 A newly developed bacterial cellulose manufacturing technique could lead to strong, multifunctional materials capable of replacing plastics. What if the next generation of high-performance materials did not come from a factory filled with petroleum-based plastics, but from living bacteria? Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have developed a new way to turn bacterial cellulose into an ultra-strong, multifunctional material that could eventually replace plastics in products ranging from packaging to electronics. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, describe a scalable manufacturing process that guides bacteria to…
Goodbye Plastic? Scientists Create New Supermaterial That Could Transform Modern Manufacturing
