0:00:01 > 0:00:05Hello welcome to Bang, bringing you the science behind the headlines,
0:00:05 > 0:00:10and tackling the issues that have a real impact on all of our lives.
0:00:10 > 0:00:17Over the next eight weeks we will be covering everything from food
0:00:17 > 0:00:22fraud to flu. Safety to sugar. From car seats to cardiac arrest, and
0:00:23 > 0:00:26tonight, plastic. Without plastic the modern world
0:00:26 > 0:00:32simply wouldn't work T wraps our food, covers our cables and keeps
0:00:32 > 0:00:37us warm. It is found in places you would never expect.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40We areer a standing on the roof of one of the UK's most famous venue,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44everyone knows the Dome. What you might not realise is the
0:00:44 > 0:00:50whole roof is covered with plastic, a teflon coat. It is the properties
0:00:50 > 0:00:54of that plastic that helps keep this the landmark it is it is
0:00:54 > 0:00:57relatively water and dirt repellent, and also a surprising fire
0:00:57 > 0:01:02retardant. It is one of the whole world of uses of this remarkable
0:01:02 > 0:01:05class of material. But good or bad, plastic keeps
0:01:05 > 0:01:11hitting the headlines. Tonight Maggie helps one family find out
0:01:11 > 0:01:17the truth about our exposure to plastic chemicals.
0:01:18 > 0:01:25I discover how plastic waste could get into our food chain. These sand
0:01:25 > 0:01:30hoppers will readily eat small fragments of plastic. Gen explores
0:01:30 > 0:01:37the latest in repsyche -- Gemexplores the latest in recycling.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42This car is running on diesel that used to be plastic. We meet a woman
0:01:42 > 0:01:46whose arm was fixed with the help of plastic glue.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51Plastic is practically everywhere, 260 million tonnes of it is
0:01:51 > 0:01:58produced each year. It litters streets, waterways, and
0:01:58 > 0:02:03oceans. It is bad for wildlife, but is it bad for us.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08I don't think we realise just how big this problem is. Obviously they
0:02:08 > 0:02:12wouldn't make it if it wasn't safe for you. We are using up the
0:02:12 > 0:02:17world's resources to make it, and if we can't ri cycle it, it is
0:02:17 > 0:02:22waste. It is brilliant what we can do with plastic.
0:02:22 > 0:02:31Unfortunately, a vast amount of all our plastic waste still ends up in
0:02:31 > 0:02:35landfill. But, there is a good news That's exactly what's happening at
0:02:35 > 0:02:40this plant. What is amaze beg this place is
0:02:40 > 0:02:45within about two hours they are able to convert filthy bales of
0:02:45 > 0:02:51bottles, into pure, food-grade plastic.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56I have been given exclusive access toity how this plant manages to
0:02:56 > 0:03:00recycle a staggering five million bottles every single day. The
0:03:00 > 0:03:05sorted bottles are chopped into tiny flakes, and all the glue and
0:03:05 > 0:03:13paper washed off. Any stray bits of the mixed plastic are separated out.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19The dense PET from water bottoms sinks to the bottom. While the milk
0:03:19 > 0:03:23bottle flakes go to the top. They get even more high-tech cleaning.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Have you ever had that dilemma as to whether it is better to recycle
0:03:27 > 0:03:33your milk carton with the lid on or off. Turns out it doesn't matter,
0:03:33 > 0:03:38because they have got one of these. It is a pretty stunning piece of
0:03:38 > 0:03:45kit. The milk bowls and lids are all shredded and washed and drifted
0:03:45 > 0:03:50past a series of laser beam, they check out which is which, and all
0:03:50 > 0:03:56the bits of lid are blown away. You are left with that, you can see you
0:03:56 > 0:03:59have your semi-skimmed, your full fat and your skimmed. Then all the
0:03:59 > 0:04:09bits of pure shredded white carton get sent off to the next part of
0:04:09 > 0:04:13
0:04:13 > 0:04:16the process. What do these go on to become? They go on to be buckets or
0:04:16 > 0:04:21wheelie bins. They are a valuable commodity, I love seeing the caps
0:04:21 > 0:04:24on. Nothing goes to waste. Nothing goes to waste. Until recently
0:04:24 > 0:04:29plastic waste could never be purefied well enough. But thanks to
0:04:29 > 0:04:36this final bit of kit, every dirty old bottle can at last be made back
0:04:36 > 0:04:39into a shiny new one. What happens is they heat it up and pop it in a
0:04:39 > 0:04:44vacuum. It is almost like warming something up and chucking it into
0:04:44 > 0:04:49outer space. Anything that is not the plastic they want just gets
0:04:49 > 0:04:54vaporised. It disappears off it. Imagine beautifully clean flakes
0:04:54 > 0:04:59with no smell. We raise the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04and we have this molten mass of milk bottles running down there, it
0:05:04 > 0:05:11will come out like spaghetti out of there. I didn't expect that. That
0:05:11 > 0:05:16is what it is. That is like a playdoh set! It is. Effectively it
0:05:16 > 0:05:20will start to chomp them up and turn them into the little pellets.
0:05:20 > 0:05:27This is it, literally, the end of the line. The loop is closed.
0:05:27 > 0:05:37is how all the dirty old milk bottles come out now? Recycled,
0:05:37 > 0:05:37
0:05:37 > 0:05:42food grade, high tensely -- high density Polyethylene Terephthalate.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46That is astonishing. The same number of bottles will be made as
0:05:46 > 0:05:50were recycled. It is encouraging to think for us as consumers that
0:05:50 > 0:05:55local authorities and industries like this are beginning to tackle
0:05:55 > 0:05:58the mountains of waste we produce. Not all plastic can be recycled
0:05:58 > 0:06:05like this yet. It is such a waste, because it is made from the world's
0:06:05 > 0:06:10most lucrative commodity, oil. This is crude oil, you can think of
0:06:10 > 0:06:16it almost as a soup of all sorts of different hydrocarbons. There are a
0:06:16 > 0:06:20huge quantity of chemicals that are derived directly from crude oil. I
0:06:20 > 0:06:26have got two of them here. And the good thing about these two, is when
0:06:26 > 0:06:31you mix them together, you can make a plastic.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36Chuck a bit of this, and on equal quantity of this. Now when I start
0:06:36 > 0:06:41mixing this lot up, you get a chemical reaction in there, that
0:06:41 > 0:06:46starts making individual molecules, join up into long, long chains.
0:06:46 > 0:06:55Long chains cold polymers, and that is essentially a plastic. The
0:06:55 > 0:07:00plastic that this makes is called Polly your thain, that might sound
0:07:00 > 0:07:07-- polyeurothane, you think it is something you have never heard of,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10but it is insulating your house now. You may even be sitting on some.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14That seems to have worked very nicely. Plastics are made in all
0:07:14 > 0:07:19sorts of different ways, this is just one of them. If all these
0:07:19 > 0:07:25plastics are made from stuff derived from crude oil, is there a
0:07:25 > 0:07:30chance that these plastics can be turned back into something like
0:07:30 > 0:07:34crude oil? Or, ideally, something like petrol or diesel that can
0:07:35 > 0:07:39power vehicles? I'm going to try to cook up diesel
0:07:39 > 0:07:44from waste plastic. The first stage is to vaporise the plastic without
0:07:44 > 0:07:51burning it. So I'm making a super- hot oven, and a cooking pot that is
0:07:51 > 0:07:58air tight and Oregan-free. I had to adapt it slightly, unmore element
0:07:58 > 0:08:02to the build. Not only is a normal oven not hot enough for the process,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07a normal cooking pot isn't up to scratch either -- one more element
0:08:07 > 0:08:13to build. Not only is a normal oven not hot enough for the process, nor
0:08:13 > 0:08:18is there a pot. The average cooking temperature is between 350-400
0:08:18 > 0:08:21degrees. Time to switch on the oven, let's cook some plastic. Soon it
0:08:21 > 0:08:29will get hot enough to start breaking down the plastic polymers
0:08:29 > 0:08:34I put in the cooking pot. At that point they form flamable vapours
0:08:34 > 0:08:38that rises up into the condensing column. Hopefully they will
0:08:38 > 0:08:43condense and cool into fuel that we can collect in here, with the plan
0:08:43 > 0:08:47we tap it off and run an engine on it. As it felts the plastic breaks
0:08:47 > 0:08:53down into different length molecules, depending on the
0:08:53 > 0:08:57temperature. For diesel I want molecules 10-20 atoms long.
0:08:57 > 0:09:03That has been boiling away from a while now. Let's see what we have
0:09:03 > 0:09:09managed to collect. It certainly looks encouraging.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Well, there is no doubt we have made a highly-flamable liquid fuel
0:09:14 > 0:09:20from waste plastic. The question is, will it run an engine?
0:09:20 > 0:09:25I can tell my fuel is too flamable to be pure diesel, but with help
0:09:25 > 0:09:29from some friendly chemists, I can separate it out. Here is our diesel,
0:09:29 > 0:09:34or what we hope is diesel. These guys have kindly allowed us to put
0:09:34 > 0:09:42it in their vehicle. Let's find out if it works. Kate are you all right
0:09:42 > 0:09:46to start her up? Keep going. Look at the level on that it has dropped
0:09:46 > 0:09:56down. This car is running on diesel that used to be plastic, waste
0:09:56 > 0:10:09
0:10:09 > 0:10:12plastic at that. # I went into a burning ring of
0:10:12 > 0:10:15fire # I went down and the flames went
0:10:15 > 0:10:18higher That was so satisfying, I could see
0:10:18 > 0:10:22how delighted you were? I must admit that is not the best it could
0:10:22 > 0:10:24be. Right at the cutting edge of research in this field there are
0:10:24 > 0:10:29universities and technology companies working on exactly this.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35And there is one company over in Ireland that is currently able to
0:10:35 > 0:10:40turn one tonne of waste plastic into 800 litres of fuel. And not
0:10:40 > 0:10:44like us, just a fairly skaech sketchy looking fuel, they can spes
0:10:44 > 0:10:50-- fairly sketchy looking fuel, they can specify what it is for,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54cars, trucking or areoplanes. Science is increasingly finding
0:10:54 > 0:10:58innovative ways to recycle plastic, but the fact is, still far too much
0:10:58 > 0:11:02of it is being chucked away carelessly. All that stuff ends up
0:11:02 > 0:11:08on our roadsides, in fields or river banks like this one. What
0:11:08 > 0:11:13that doing to the environment? Plastic pollution in the Pacific in
0:11:13 > 0:11:18particular has received a lot of news coverage. Levels are so high
0:11:18 > 0:11:21there that it has been called the Pacific Garbage Patch. Plastic is
0:11:21 > 0:11:27seriously affecting the birds and animals in that area. But what's
0:11:27 > 0:11:30going on closer to home? Professor Richard Thompson has been
0:11:30 > 0:11:38monitoring levels of plastic on Britain's coasts and in the
0:11:38 > 0:11:42waterways for the past ten years. Today he's taking me on a fishing
0:11:42 > 0:11:47trip with a difference down the Tamar Estuary in Devon.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Richard, how do you go about fishing for plastic? Most plastics
0:11:50 > 0:12:00are buoyant when they centre the sea. We will find them at the sea
0:12:00 > 0:12:04surface or close to it. Using a manternet, it will stablise it on
0:12:04 > 0:12:08the sea surface and a net behind it. The water goes through it and the
0:12:08 > 0:12:13plastic collects at the end of it? It is the same type of apparatus
0:12:13 > 0:12:18that is used worldwide for sampling plastic on the sea surface. What do
0:12:18 > 0:12:25you want to catch? We will look at spring tides, ebb tide, flood tide,
0:12:25 > 0:12:35and neap tide. We want to know how much of a pathway it is using fresh
0:12:35 > 0:12:36
0:12:36 > 0:12:42water out into the sea. 3-2-1, go.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48Over a third of the plastic that we produce is used for single-trip
0:12:48 > 0:12:52application, we are taught that those are throwaway items and the
0:12:52 > 0:12:55plastic at the end of its life has no value. It is that behaviour that
0:12:56 > 0:12:59results in littering, accumulation of landfill and debris being left
0:12:59 > 0:13:03behind by beach-goers. All of that material is accumulating in the
0:13:03 > 0:13:08vefrplt. -- environment. This stretch of
0:13:08 > 0:13:18water is meant to be unpolluted, so Richard doesn't expect to find much
0:13:18 > 0:13:20
0:13:20 > 0:13:25plastic. If we have caught anything it is bad news.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Lots of seaweed, but definitely bits of plastic.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Everything from, they are small? The affects of small bits of debris
0:13:31 > 0:13:36are less well known, and potentially quite different to
0:13:36 > 0:13:41those that we might think of in term of larger debris causing
0:13:41 > 0:13:45strangulation or last rations. We have got very fall -- lascerations,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49we have very small pieces, and there is concern that some of these
0:13:49 > 0:13:55small pieces could act as a vector for the transport of chemicals to
0:13:55 > 0:13:59the creatures that digest them. Recent research suggests these tiny
0:13:59 > 0:14:03bits of plastic attract pollutants, making them even more toxic to
0:14:03 > 0:14:11wildlife. All of this is bad enough, but it turns out it is not the open
0:14:11 > 0:14:14seas that are suffering the most. Liz, the reason I wanted to bring
0:14:14 > 0:14:19you here was some of the plastic we were locking at in the sea, of
0:14:19 > 0:14:23course that all washes up on shorelines. If I dig my hands down,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28there is hundreds of small pieces of plastic. All of the shorelines
0:14:28 > 0:14:34that we have sampled, worldwide, right the way from the Southern
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Ocean, up to the Arctic, we found microsomeic fragments of elastic on
0:14:39 > 0:14:42all of those shores. Even if plastic breaks down into minuscule
0:14:42 > 0:14:47fragments, it will never disappear. Now there is a danger it can get
0:14:47 > 0:14:53into our food chain a food chain that starts with tiny creatures.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56One of the ones we looked at of these sand hoppers will readily eat
0:14:56 > 0:15:02small fragments of plastic, like they will chew away at the corner
0:15:02 > 0:15:08of plastic bag. These are the citers going through the really
0:15:08 > 0:15:12tiny plastic particles? They would normally shred natural organic
0:15:12 > 0:15:15materials. How much damage do you think it is causing these little
0:15:15 > 0:15:18fellas? This is one of the great unknowns and something we are
0:15:18 > 0:15:23trying to establish with the research we are doing at Plymouth,
0:15:23 > 0:15:30which is what is the potentially harm for these creatures from
0:15:30 > 0:15:34plastic in the environment. Thl we can prevent -- we can prevent waste
0:15:34 > 0:15:39plastic getting into our oceans, it seems it will end up in the food
0:15:39 > 0:15:47chain. We need to find out now how that might affect our well being.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Still to come, Liz find out how PVA, a plastic glue, is helping
0:15:49 > 0:15:53orthopaedic surgeons about bone grafts.
0:15:53 > 0:15:59This is fantastic science. First, back to the food chain, whether we
0:15:59 > 0:16:03should be worried about plastic. Most food products are wrapped in
0:16:03 > 0:16:08plastic, you don't really know what is in it. It always strikes me as
0:16:09 > 0:16:12strange you get lovely spring water and you put it in a petro-chemical
0:16:12 > 0:16:16plastic container. With breast cancer, for instance, you don't
0:16:16 > 0:16:20drink the bottle of water you have left in the car in the sunlight. I
0:16:20 > 0:16:24have always taken that on board, I don't know how true that is.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Stories of harmful chemicals from plastics have been in the news
0:16:28 > 0:16:32again recently is the media just scaring mongering, or should we
0:16:32 > 0:16:36really be worried. Like many families, the Nathaniels from
0:16:36 > 0:16:40Nottingham, are concerned, because their life is full of plastic. Do
0:16:40 > 0:16:43they really know how full it is, even in their own home. I have
0:16:43 > 0:16:47asked them to collect as much as they can and pile it up in the
0:16:47 > 0:16:51garden. There is so much I can't decide what to put in. After just a
0:16:51 > 0:16:55few minutes it is clear this could go on forever.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59I am going to stop you there, you are decimating your house. What
0:16:59 > 0:17:03haven't you brought out? The fridge. Washing machine, the printer.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Obviously we are not going to start asking you to bring out all of the
0:17:06 > 0:17:13cabling and lighting and things that are fixed. There were some
0:17:13 > 0:17:20things that you didn't pick up. For instance fleece, and tin cans.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Where is the plastic in a tin can. It is inside the tin can. Yes,
0:17:23 > 0:17:28plastics are in practically everything. It is the stuff that
0:17:28 > 0:17:35comes into contact with the food that really worries the Nathaniels.
0:17:35 > 0:17:42We don't use clingfilm, we cook in ceramic containers. If we buy
0:17:42 > 0:17:49bottled water we will recycle it and reuse it. The families' worries
0:17:49 > 0:17:53started when they read about hormone problems and plastics. Two
0:17:53 > 0:17:58plastics in all products, Fisichella and phthalate can affect
0:17:58 > 0:18:02our sex hor moans. They want to know -- Bishop and phthalate, can
0:18:02 > 0:18:08affect our sex hormones. They want to know which what is safe.
0:18:08 > 0:18:15reuse the bottle several times. Buying cuck come better is there
0:18:15 > 0:18:20anything leaching into it. We use reusable bottle, what will food
0:18:20 > 0:18:24bottles, is anything leaching out into our food. I have arranged some
0:18:24 > 0:18:27tests. I'm sending urine samples for analysis to find out if we have
0:18:27 > 0:18:35any plastic chemicals in our systems. But to answer their
0:18:35 > 0:18:41questions about bottles and containers, I need to see an expert.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Dr Chris Howick is an expert for the Food Plastics Federation.
0:18:45 > 0:18:51you are concerned about bisphenol and phthalate -- Bishop and
0:18:52 > 0:18:57phthalate, this is not based on Bishop A, so it won't -- bisphenol
0:18:57 > 0:19:03A, so it is not based on that, we can reassure them. Reusing plastic
0:19:03 > 0:19:08water bottle, I do that all the time? As long as it is kept clean
0:19:08 > 0:19:12and the integrity of the plastic article remains that it can't still
0:19:12 > 0:19:15be used. What about the plastic? The great thing about plastics for
0:19:15 > 0:19:19packaging cucumbers is the plastic would have been through the
0:19:19 > 0:19:23assessment, so it wof been shown to only used the approved -- would
0:19:23 > 0:19:30have been shown to only use the approved ingredients. The great
0:19:30 > 0:19:34thing is it extends the shelf life of the cucumber from three days to
0:19:34 > 0:19:3814. Chris told me all plastics used to package food are tested and
0:19:38 > 0:19:42labelled appropriate low, include if anything they can be used in
0:19:42 > 0:19:45dishwashers or microwaves. There is a huge safety obligation that the
0:19:45 > 0:19:49regulators place on the plastics industry. Companies have to only
0:19:49 > 0:19:53use the materials that are approved, they have to do testing on a
0:19:53 > 0:19:58regular basis to show that even those substances that are approved,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02do not transfer their ingredients into food in any levels that can
0:20:02 > 0:20:06ever be considered a risk to public safety.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It is time fortunate nats and me to find out whether every day contact
0:20:09 > 0:20:17with plastic means we have the chemicals in our systems and if so,
0:20:17 > 0:20:25whether the levels are safe or not. All of us had levels of BPA, very
0:20:25 > 0:20:31small amounts, but detectable levels of BPA, and you guys had
0:20:31 > 0:20:36tiny amounts of phthalates. Just me and him? Just you two. Just to
0:20:36 > 0:20:41reassure you, even if you had 250- times the amounts that showed up in
0:20:41 > 0:20:46our tests, you would still have been all right. We have had every
0:20:46 > 0:20:51assurance that they are very, very safe levels, minuscule levels. I
0:20:51 > 0:20:58just wanted to know how you felt about that? It is nice to know that
0:20:58 > 0:21:01the plastics are safe, and what we have found in us is not out of the
0:21:01 > 0:21:05ordinary. Will you change anything as a result of this? I'm very, very
0:21:06 > 0:21:09pleased to know that I can keep reusing the water bottles. That is
0:21:09 > 0:21:13very useful. I'm going to read the manufacturers instructions more
0:21:13 > 0:21:16carefully. The two types of chemical that is
0:21:16 > 0:21:20we looked at with the Nathaniels have been well studied, and shown
0:21:20 > 0:21:25to be safe at the levels to which we are normally exposed. Since we
0:21:25 > 0:21:28made the film, a new report from the World Health Organisation, and
0:21:28 > 0:21:38the United Nations environment programme has hit the headlines. I
0:21:38 > 0:21:40
0:21:40 > 0:21:45caught up with one of the authors to discuss the findings.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50The report summarises the decade of the chemicals interfering or
0:21:50 > 0:21:55mimicking the action of hor hone moans, and in so -- hormones, and
0:21:55 > 0:22:00in so doing caused a verse affects on bodily functions. Are we like
0:22:00 > 0:22:05loo to be exposed to levels of these chem -- likely to be exposed
0:22:05 > 0:22:12to levels of this chemical s that would have an adverse affect?
0:22:13 > 0:22:17are close to 800 that may be endow cin disrupting chemicals. They are
0:22:17 > 0:22:23in furniture, food and cosmetics. What this means is we experience
0:22:23 > 0:22:27exposure to diverse chemicals from various sources as a cocktail.
0:22:27 > 0:22:37Whilst individually these chemicals may not cause harm, collectively
0:22:37 > 0:22:37
0:22:37 > 0:22:43they may have already reached harmful levels. Many things in
0:22:43 > 0:22:47society that are endocrine issues, like reproductive cancers like
0:22:47 > 0:22:51breast, have risen in the last 40- 50 years. The rise has been too
0:22:51 > 0:22:57steep and too fast to be explained by genetics alone. Environmental
0:22:57 > 0:23:01factors are generally accepted to be involved.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06It is not hard to see just how complicated this is. On the one
0:23:06 > 0:23:09hand, you have exposure to a vast number of chemical, and effects on
0:23:09 > 0:23:14the body that might take decades to manifest them he was. It is clear
0:23:14 > 0:23:17that much more research is needed. And in the meantime, we have to
0:23:17 > 0:23:26weigh up potential risk against the very real benefits that plastics
0:23:26 > 0:23:30can offer. One area where plastics can be
0:23:30 > 0:23:37advantageous, is in modern medicine, as Carey Adams discovered. She has
0:23:37 > 0:23:42always been a keen horse rider. But in 2008 suffered a freak accident.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46I was having a riding lesson, I lost my stir rip and I felt his
0:23:46 > 0:23:52haunchs go and I knew he would bolt. The next thing I know I was in
0:23:52 > 0:23:58hospital, I had broken both my arm, one bone in my right arm, both
0:23:58 > 0:24:03bones in the other arm it was bent at 90 degrees and extremely painful.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Carey had extremely painful surgery on both arms, with pins and plates
0:24:07 > 0:24:12holding her wrists together. She was still in pain a year later.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16doctors said it was unlikely to heal and suggested a bone graft.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19do a bone graft surgeries normally remove healthy bone from other
0:24:19 > 0:24:23parts of the patient's body, usually the pelvis. There is
0:24:23 > 0:24:27another option far less painful and invasive, that is to produce a
0:24:27 > 0:24:32synthetic bone graft. The key to making that a successful
0:24:32 > 0:24:38alternative lies in plastic derived from this stuff, school glue.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Dr Karin Hing from Queen mareies ap University was on a mission to find
0:24:41 > 0:24:47an -- Queen Mary's university was on a mission to find something with
0:24:47 > 0:24:50the same properties as bone, it had to be light and strong and a
0:24:50 > 0:24:56honeycomb structure that would allow real blood vessels and bone
0:24:56 > 0:25:06to grow into it to create the perfect new bone. How did you
0:25:06 > 0:25:06
0:25:06 > 0:25:14create the perfect synthetic bone graft. It is school glue, PVA.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Polymer, what is that? Calcium phosphate, with a dash much
0:25:18 > 0:25:22silicone. That is chemically similar to our own natural bone.
0:25:22 > 0:25:28Just a bit of pure water, can you pour that in. And now if you can
0:25:28 > 0:25:34give that a mix together with the whisk.
0:25:34 > 0:25:40I'm after a thick foam, but all my whisking is pointedly so far, that
0:25:40 > 0:25:49is where the magic ingredient comes in. This is the polyvinyl alcohol,
0:25:49 > 0:25:5520mls or so. Whisk away is it? Look Obviously you want it to foam up
0:25:55 > 0:26:01like a meringue. That is amazing. I thought that
0:26:01 > 0:26:04only happened with egg whites. How does the polyvinyl alcohol make
0:26:05 > 0:26:08this happen? This frothing effect? It is more or less exactly the same
0:26:08 > 0:26:12thing that happens when you do the washing up. The polyvinyl alcohol
0:26:12 > 0:26:14is reducing the surface tension of the water. When you whip it up the
0:26:14 > 0:26:19bubbles form and don't collapse again.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23To turn this frothy liquid to a bone-like substance, we need to
0:26:23 > 0:26:31gently dry it out at a low temperature, just like this one
0:26:31 > 0:26:39that Karen made earlier. May I lift this? I'm really excited about this,
0:26:39 > 0:26:44actually, it is fantastic science. This now represents a very bone-
0:26:44 > 0:26:48like graft that you can place in a fracture to allow the natural
0:26:48 > 0:26:53healing process to occur? Exactly. So the next thing we have to do is
0:26:53 > 0:26:57fire it, just like you fire a ceramic pot. Then the ceramic
0:26:57 > 0:27:00particles will fuse together as the temperature gets hotter, and that
0:27:00 > 0:27:05gives it the nice solid structure and integrity. Because of the way
0:27:05 > 0:27:11the PVA has foamed it, you have the macro and microstructure you need
0:27:11 > 0:27:16to have it to work as a bone graft. One final hot firing burns off all
0:27:16 > 0:27:20the PVA, leaving a synthetic bone graft that is plastic-free, to put
0:27:20 > 0:27:25inside the patient. This is how Carey's bones were fixed. I went in
0:27:25 > 0:27:28to have an operation, they put the bone graft in the fracture site,
0:27:28 > 0:27:34sewed it up and sent me home. Finally, three years after the
0:27:35 > 0:27:39accident I had the plate removed and I'm backed mying again.
0:27:39 > 0:27:49-- riding again. I think it is great they found a way using an
0:27:49 > 0:27:53every day material like glue to make a synthetic bone graft.
0:27:53 > 0:27:59Plastics are transforming life beyond medicine too. Especially in
0:27:59 > 0:28:07new media, like these completely flexible screens with revolutionary
0:28:07 > 0:28:10plastic electronics. But, cutting- electronic -- cutting-edge plastic
0:28:10 > 0:28:15research is not all electronics, out there there is a new chewing
0:28:15 > 0:28:20gum, tastes like the same thing, but doesn't stick to the payments.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Look on the website to see me make plastic from potato starch. For
0:28:25 > 0:28:30more follow the link for the Open University. See you the same time,
0:28:30 > 0:28:37same place next week. Goodbye. Next woke on Bang Goes The Theory,