Outside this anteroom at the University of Queensland is a stock standard laboratory where, like most labs around the world, plastic is ubiquitous. The bench tops are laminated, there are plastic tubs and bottles everywhere and staff walk around in lab coats made from synthetic fibres. There is plastic in the air, on the floor and scientists drink out of it.
But in here, through a tightly sealed door, there is virtually none of the stuff. Through another door, in an air-locked corridor, scientists walk in, plastic-free, ready to enter a laboratory space that is unlike any other in the world.
