Optimized adhesives drawn from nature
Following up on my post about Brian Eno's talk, Before and After Darwin, I look at a work in progress where scientists looking at nature at the nanoscale have made some discoveries that could transform whole industries.
I invite you to read about optimized adhesives from abalone and spider silk at GreenTechBlog.
There I explore how researchers have found an optimized adhesive contained in bone, abalone shells and spider silk that could be used in "glues" for nanocomposite materials. Their work could lead to a new class of adhesives that far exceed current ones like urea formaldehyde, which is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.
Posted January 16th, 2007 in Research.