This week Ash talks about the history of plastics - from Celluloid to Tupperware - and how they were once considered the sustainable solution in our In Focus segment. In our SNPit, Rosie tells us about a new plan that could prevent the next pandemic.

Read more about the history of plastic and biodegradable alternatives below:

• A Brief History of Plastic's Conquest of the World
• The Invention of Plastic Materials from Parkesine to Polyester
• A Brief History of the Invention of Plastics
• John Wesley Hyatt - Plastics Hall of Fame
• The Tupperware Effect, Empowering Women Around the World
• Secret History of: Tupperware
• Tupperware: Income Disclosure Summary
• When Biodegradable Plastic Is Not Biodegradable
• 'Biodegradable' Plastics Survive Three Years in Soil and Sea
• Why Biodegradables Won't Solve the Plastic Crisis

More about the Global Immunological Observatory below:

• Could a Global 'Observatory' of Blood Help Stop the Next Pandemic?
• Science Forum: A Global Immunological Observatory to Meet a Time of Pandemics
• Swine Flu Strain With Human Pandemic Potential Increasingly Found in Pigs in China

Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/