cyclic monomers back bite when subjected to ring-opening polymerisation

An example of metaphor in public science discourse:

"In Wooley's lab, her natural product-derived polycarbonates have already demonstrated a propensity for backbone alteration and structural metamorphosis. 'We were finding that when were we were doing ring-opening polymerisation of cyclic monomers, they would back bite and do a rearrangement, essentially,' she says. As a result, the regiochemistry of the monomer insertion into the growing polymer backbone – and the final polymer composition – would shift."

James Mitchell Crow (2024) Editing polymer backbones, Chemistry World, February 2024. pp.48-51

Karen Wooley is Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University.