Forever chemicals are also everywhere chemicals.

They're found in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the products we buy—particularly ones that need to be durable, slippery or resistant to heat, stains or moisture. Think nonstick pans, waterproof jackets, paper food packaging and utensils, and cosmetics and dental products.

They're also in all of us. Known technically as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, forever chemicals have contaminated the blood of people, animals and ecosystems the world over. In humans who work closely with them, they're known to harm the immune, digestive, endocrine and reproductive systems.

The quality that makes forever chemicals so useful is also what makes them especially dangerous: the chemical bond at their center is one of the strongest in nature. Left to their own devices, these substances never break down. But their iron grip on our lives and world may be loosening.

Chasing an End to Forever is a documentary short film, currently in production and slated for release in fall 2026, that tells the story of cutting-edge research happening in Princeton University’s Avalos Research Group and The Environmental Biogeochemistry Research Group centered on the strange bacterium called Acidimicrobium sp. Strain A6 (A6), which is uniquely capable of breaking down forever chemicals.

Discovered in 2013 by Princeton professor Peter Jaffé and his team in a New Jersey wetland just 70 miles from the DuPont Chambers Works plant where forever chemicals were first created, A6 holds tremendous promise for the environmental remediation of forever chemical pollution in lands and waters.

But the teams’ pursuit of perfecting and scaling their science for real-world applications faces significant hurdles. Chasing an End to Forever pulls back the curtain on how these two teams of scientists work, and think about their work, as well as the challenges they face in their quest to effect ecological transformation at scale.

Chasing an End to Forever is co-produced, co-directed and co-written by Barron Bixler and Allison Carruth under the auspices of Blue Lab. The film is supported by the Collaborations between Artists and Scientists or Engineers fund at Princeton University.