What exactly do they want.?. Recent developments. It kind of makes no sense IMHO
This is part of the 2002 paper so maybe they wont ask for something like this. Do they want the uses such as shampoo bottles etc
I'm on my phone and am away from home so I dont have a computer and thus this will probably make no sense. Stupid iPhone autocorrect
I believe this question also popped up in the 2005 (or 2006) chem paper... So it seems a decent question.
Recent developments, generally, will include methods of easier extracting the biopolymer which is effective both financially and time-wise. Other recent developments may border alternatives of spawning the Biopolymer through a combination of other methods (and so on).
Though, I presume you're chosen biopolymer is Biopol (which is by far the easiest). Recent developments of this may include genetically engineering bacteria such as E. coli and imprinting the genes of the bacteria with those of microorganisms that naturally produce Biopol (alcaligenes eutrophus from the top of my head). Also, other alternatives could include utilising cheap substrates (food sources) to grow the bacteria required to produce Biopol.
From here I would probably look into some of the advantages of the aforementioned. You might even, as you mentioned, assess the potential socioeconomic advantages of the products that may be produced from the biopolymer. In this case, Biopol's use in medicine is worth looking into. Though I would look into what the syllabus stated before doing so - because applications of the biopolymer seems to be going off-topic.
Check out the dot point book if you do study Biopol, it has some decent information.
