There's less than a week until applications for the Apprentice of the Year Award close! The award celebrates and recognises apprentices' contributions to their teams and the wider bioscience community. It is open to current bioscience apprentices in the UK or those who have completed their apprenticeship in the last 12 months ago. 📆 Applications close next Tuesday 8 July! Find out more and apply today: www.rsb.org.uk/apprentice-of-the-year-award.html #biosciencesforall #apprenticeships #ApprenticeOfTheYear (fb)

In 2016, a new species, Ideonella sakaiensis, recovered from a bottle-recycling facility in Sakai, Japan, hit the headlines for its ability to almost completely break down polyethylene terephthalate. This, and other evidence, raised hopes that microbes could help clear up our oceans and landfill sites. However, there are difficult realities to this approach as James Romero explains in this article from The Biologist's archive: thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/the-plastic-eaters The Biologist microsite has hundreds of articles available for free. Explore them today! thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist #plasticfreejuly (fb)