I am a Materials Girl

Author: Kate Quinlivan

This year I am a senior in high school and am deep into the college admission process. All of these universities have unique traditions, and one I find very interesting is painting! At Duke, every first-year student leaves their mark by painting the East Campus Bridge during orientation, while at Northwestern, student groups “guard” The Rock for 24 hours before layering on their message. UVA’s Beta Bridge is one of the most visible forums on campus, where paint layers pile up daily with everything from sports cheers to memorials. At Michigan, the Ann Arbor Rock has been repainted so many times since the 1950s that it’s practically a geological formation in its own right.

The bridge painting for Duke is a kick-off activity of Orientation Week for incoming-first year students. (Picture Source: https://today.duke.edu/2012/08/ecampusbridge)
Northwestern undergrads often “guard” the rock for 24 hours to claim the right to paint it next. Picture Source: (https://www.northwestern.edu/about/history/the-rock.html)
UVA’s Beta Bridge often has announcements for campus events, current affairs bulletins, club member recruitments, commemorations of horrific world events, cheers for UVA athletic teams, and so on. (Picture Source: https://discovercharlottesville.com/listings/beta-bridge/)
Michigan’s Rock was originally painted gray, but has since been continuously painted over by students and other members of the community looking to make their (temporary) mark. (Picture Source: https://www.michigandaily.com/news/campus-life/a-campus-tradition-painting-the-rock/)

From a materials science perspective, these traditions are more than just campus fun. Each new coat of paint adds a polymer-based layer, creating a stratified record of pigments, binders, and fillers that interact over time through adhesion, diffusion, and weathering. Environmental exposure (UV radiation, humidity, freeze–thaw cycles) induces degradation, causing chalking, flaking, or microcracking that can expose older layers beneath. The constant repainting also creates a multilayer composite structure, sometimes several inches thick, with mechanical properties similar to laminates: stiff yet brittle, prone to delamination under stress. These campus traditions thus accidently generate living laboratories of applied materials science, where students walking past a rock or bridge are witnessing the durability, failure, and layered complexity of everyday polymers in action.

Here is a close-up of the layers of paint from the Northwestern Rock. (Picture Source: https://evanstonroundtable.com/2021/05/28/northwestern-rock-chipped-and-damaged-for-unconfirmed-reasons/)
These are the layers of paint from the UVA Beta Bridge. (Picture Source: https://news.virginia.edu/content/painting-beta-bridge-tradition-expression)

100% Fish Project

Iceland has always been a destination I’ve wanted to visit. Other than the obvious reason to escape the Florida heat, I would like to go because I hear they have fascinating landscapes of glaciers, volcanoes, hot springs, and waterfalls. It would also be incredible to see the Northern Lights. And it turns out Materials Science has a huge impact on their sustainability! In a world where industrial fishing often leaves a staggering 45–80 percent of a fish unused, Iceland has set a remarkable example—transforming nearly 90 percent of its cod catch into valuable products. This radical shift stems from the 100% Fish project, driven by the Iceland Ocean Cluster, a Reykjavik-based innovation hub where startups and established firms collaborate to extract maximum value from every part of the fish. This circular‑economy approach is already yielding impressive results. The fishing industry now contributes about 25 percent of Iceland’s GDP—despite a 45 percent reduction in total catch since 1981—while export revenues have more than doubled.

Fish heads and bones: Dried using Iceland’s geothermal energy and exported—especially to markets like Nigeria, where they serve as nutrient-rich soup bases.

Collagen and energy‑drink ingredients: Derived from fish skin, these are turning into trendy health products.

Skin grafts for medical use: Through the biotech company Kerecis, cod skin is being repurposed into wound‑healing grafts—one of the most innovative uses emerging from the 100% Fish collaboration.

Kerecis

Founded by Fertram Sigurjonsson, Kerecis specializes in decellularized Atlantic cod skin that promotes tissue regeneration, accelerates healing, and minimizes scarring—offering a safe, sustainable, and culturally neutral alternative to mammalian grafts. In 2023, the company was acquired by Denmark’s Coloplast for about $1.2 billion (a testament to both its effectiveness and commercial value).

Innovation

Iceland’s model shows that necessity and limited natural resources can spur innovation. By making full use of cod parts once considered waste, the country is not only boosting its economy but also reducing environmental impact and inspiring global industries to rethink resource utilization. What was once thrown away is now fueling health, medicine, and sustainable innovation.

References

Company, Fast. “Fast Company.” From Energy Drinks to Skin Grafts: How Iceland Uses 90% of Its Fish Waste, apple.news/AHauwxo7oTuqy2RD0tWG10Q.

The Crisis

Plastics have long posed one of the greatest environmental challenges in our society, persisting in ecosystems for centuries and fueling a global waste crisis. While recycling offers some relief, it is often energy-intensive and limited in scope. (And surprisingly not everyone recycles!!) New research, however, sheds light on an unexpected solution: microbes that can break down plastics in the cold.

The Solution

According to an article in The Guardian, scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute WSL have uncovered 19 bacterial and 15 fungal strains in alpine and Arctic environments capable of breaking down certain biodegradable plastics at just 15 °C (59 °F)—a much lower temperature than the typical requirement of over 30 °C for such microbial activity. These microbes were isolated from plastic samples buried in locations across Greenland, Svalbard, and Switzerland, then cultured in the lab in darkness at 15 °C, where they showed abilities to degrade polyester‑polyurethane (PUR) and blends of PBAT and PLA, but not conventional polyethylene (PE). Particularly notable were two previously uncharacterized fungi—genera Neodevriesia and Lachnellula—that were effective against all tested biodegradable plastics except PE.This discovery suggests a promising, lower-energy pathway toward industrial enzymatic recycling of biodegradable plastics. The identification of cold-adapted, plastic-eating microbes underscores the potential of science to find solutions where we least expect them. If developed further, this discovery could help transform how we recycle plastics and reduce their lasting impact on the planet. Sometimes the best solutions are where you least expect it!

A pile of plastic bottles at a rubbish dump in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

References

US, Guardian. “Guardian US.” Microbes Discovered That Can Digest Plastics at Low Temperatures, apple.news/Al4_8ogEUT8ekE7bQuCDylQ

Juno Beach Headquaters

I loved being able to share my experience at my NextEra Internship with this blog, however we spent the remaining time at the headquarters in Juno Beach, FL and I was unable to document it. They did not allow us to take pictures, but it was one of the most unique buildings I have ever been in. Unlike the labs, the headquarters gave me a broader perspective of how all the different teams—nuclear, wind, and solar—fit together with business management and finance. It was much more about strategy and coordination, but it still carried the same spirit of innovation I had seen in the prior week.

Kyoto Gardens Location

We also visited the new Palm Beach Gardens (Kyoto Gardens) location, which had a similar emphasis on creativity and problem-solving. This brand new building was created to withstand Category 5 hurricanes—suitable to house all of the storm teams during a hurricane. What I found most interesting about this building was that they built it so that every room in the entire facility had access to natural light. Being in both of these places showed me how the hands-on work I observed earlier connects to the bigger picture of NextEra’s mission. Overall, this internship gave me an inside look at both the technical and organizational sides of clean energy. With that, my NextEra experience came to an end, but it was an incredible opportunity to learn and see how engineering can drive change.

This is the headquarters building in Juno Beach, FL. The entire facility is surrounded by water and a scenic walking trail. (Picture Source: https://www.nexteraenergy.com/about-us/our-history/environmental.html)
This the new building on Kyoto Gardens Drive. I anticipate it to become the new headquarters eventually, as NextEra is ever growing and this is a much larger location with the space for many more employees. (Picture Source: https://ongardens.org/2022/08/01/exclusive-fpl-seeks-to-build-second-building-at-gardens-site/)

Pololū Valley

This summer I had the privilege of going to Hawaii. While still vast with beaches, they could not be more different from the beaches we have here in Florida. The cliffside edges, the color of the sand, and, as always, the material makeup of the sand. The typical flat, minutes long walk we take to the beach could not be more opposite that the 2000 meter hike we had to take down from the top of the cliff to reach the beach. The beach we visited in Hawaii is called Pololū Valley on the Big Island. Pololū is the northernmost of a series of erosional valleys forming the east coast of Kohala Mountain. While not every beach in Hawaii is a black sand beach, Pololū Valley met all of our expectations: the dichotomy of the black sand meeting the crashing waves, the scorching sun hitting the darker colored sand beneath our feet, and the towering cliff sides covered in greenery complementing the surrounding rocks. Black sand beaches, like this one in Hawaii, are primarily composed of basalt, a dense volcanic rock. When molten lava meets the cool ocean, it quenches rapidly, shattering into fine, glassy fragments. Over time, wave action breaks down these volcanic shards into sand-sized particles. This is an example of mechanical weathering and thermal shock, where rapid cooling induces fracture and brittleness in otherwise tough volcanic glass.

White Sand Beaches

On the other hand, Florida’s white sand beaches are made mostly of quartz (silicon dioxide) and crushed calcium carbonate from coral and seashells. Quartz is highly chemically stable, which means it resists weathering and remains bright and white even after long periods of erosion. These grains have been transported over millennia by rivers and wind, polished down to a smooth texture. What’s fascinating from a materials science standpoint is how these sands differ not just in color but also in thermal properties, hardness, and reflectivity. Black sand absorbs more heat due to its lower albedo, making it much hotter to walk on. White sand reflects sunlight, staying cooler underfoot. The angularity and composition of volcanic sand can give it a coarser texture, while quartz-rich sands are typically smoother and finer. Shaped by heat, pressure, erosion, and time, their colors tell a story not just of geography, but of the structure and behavior of materials on Earth’s surface.

References

“Basalt.” Minerals Education Coalition, www.mineralseducationcoalition.org/minerals-database/basalt. 

USGS. “Coastal Erosion and Sand Composition.” U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov/special-topic/coastal-and-marine-geology/science/sand-composition-and-erosion.