Bermuda’s spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) catch has declined over the past decade despite longstanding management measures designed to support a sustainable fishery. New research suggests that part of the explanation may lie far beyond Bermuda’s waters, in changes taking place across the wider ocean food web.

A new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) shows that a single biomaterial can be locally "programmed" to be rigid in some areas and flexible in others, mimicking a strategy long used by insects and other arthropods.

As a proof of concept, described in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the researchers built articulated structures combining rigid segments and flexible joints to enable controlled movement within a single continuous sheet.

Inspired by how nature builds complex structures from a single material, the approach could simplify both manufacturing and recycling. Locally tuning one biodegradable material with trace amounts of metals avoids producing different materials for different functions and could allow the whole object to be recycled or composted together, eliminating the sorting and separate recovery that multi-material products require.

A cross-functional team comprised of researchers, supply chain management, and facilities leadership, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has developed and tested a practical approach to help research institutions identify energy-intensive ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers, prioritize replacements, and forecast potential energy and cost savings. Published in Biopreservation and Biobanking, the research provides methods that institutions can adapt to freezer fleets of different sizes and available budgets¹.