Jie Wu, an engineering graduate student, was studying a type of striking white beetle found in Southeast Asia and attempting to figure out how to mimic its brilliant color when an unexpected discovery upended the experiment. Jie and I had been hoping to identify naturally occurring whitening pigments that could be used in paper and paints. …But instead of creating a white material as intended, Jie produced dense, transparent films. The nanofibers more readily assembled in tightly packed films than in the porous structures Jie desired. That serendipitous finding in 2014 shifted my team of engineering students’ focus from color to packaging. …In the years since, our team has used this discovery to create biodegradable films that offer a more sustainable and effective alternative to plastic packaging. …The materials are renewable, biodegradable and compostable. Our team has filed several patent applications, and we are working with industry partners to develop specific packaging uses.