Nature's Glue

Early this year, scientists discovered how the common blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, makes a glue so tough it sticks to slippery Teflon. The mussel is shown here hanging out after a whole night of sticky business.

The trick is iron in seawater, which the mussel extracts and uses as a binding agent.

The finding could help scientists develop better household adhesives and safer alternatives to surgical glues. It might also help researchers prevent damage to ships to which the mussels adhere. Counter the glue somehow and alien mussels trying to hitch rides across the high seas would be less likely to invade continents they aren't native to.

The natural glue was reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie by Jonathan Wilker, Mary Sever and others at Purdue University.

-- Robert Roy Britt

Credit: Jonathan Wilker of Purdue University, NSF