A chemistry professor in Paris has come up with a kind of rubber that can "heal" itself.
Ludwik Leibler says his rubber can be stuck back together if it is torn, then used over and over.
Leibler and his colleagues built up their rubber from simple starting materials including vegetable oil and urea, a component of urine. The resulting material is a cross between silly putty and a rubber ball with applications ranging from adhesives to bicycle tires.
When the material melds together again, it has just as much strength as it had before, says Leibler, a polymer chemist at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris, France.
Video: YouTube
Source: Canadian Press via New Scientist
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