Tom Yum

World's Strongest Glue! Available Only From Nature!

Corey Binns
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com Mon Apr 10, 12:00 PM ET

The bacterium Caulobacter crescentus uses the toughest glue on Earth to stick to river rocks, and now scientists are trying to figure out how to produce the stuff.
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The adhesive can withstand an enormous amount of stress, equal to the force felt by a quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it. That’s two to three times more force than the best retail glues can handle.

The single-celled bacterium uses sugar molecules to stay put in rivers, streams, and water pipes, a new study found. It’s not clear how the glue actually works, however, but researchers presume some special proteins must be attached to the sugars.

"There are obvious applications since this adhesive works on wet surfaces," said study leader Yves Brun, an Indiana University bacteriologist. "One possibility would be as a biodegradable surgical adhesive."

Engineers could use the superior stickum too, Brun and colleagues say.

But making it has proved challenging. Like a mess of chewing gum, the gunk globs to everything, including the tools used to create it.

"We tried washing the glue off," Brun said. "It didn't work."

The research, announced by the university Friday, will be detailed in the April 11 issue of the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.

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jubaji

No one asked you, punk.

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jubaji

That's pretty obvious from the way that you've been liberally spreading your bullsh*t all over this place. Nobody wants to hear it from you, punk.

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jubaji

I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

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jubaji

As I thought. You are afraid to stand by your own words. You'd best watch your mouth in the future, punk.

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Tom Yum

No not at all. I thought it was an interesting article, you didn't. No big deal.

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jubaji

You'll be kicked out, as you are just about to be.......buh-bye!

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Tom Yum

I graduated from the class several weeks ago. It went well.

Yeah, it would be interesting to find the name of this substance. Take a sample of it and characterize it by NMR or Mass Spec to see what its made of. Its either a supermolecule or a polymer. Makes you wonder what its rheology is like. How crystaline is it? Does it begin to decompose at a critical temperature?

If it can hold a quarter size cross section of rock to the weight equivalent of 3-mid sized cars, how strong is it? What is its tensile modulus etc? Does the substance behave like a newtonian fluid at different temperatures?

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Tom Yum

You just won't answer a simple question about tool belts or gladiators....

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Tom Yum

Doesn't bother me. No, but since you claimed to be SAS you'd be more privy to that knowledge than I would.

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Tom Yum

Uh huh.....I can tell.

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Bjjexpertise@be

So Tom. You think they should come up with a way to dissolve it or neutralize the adhesive first before continuing to tamper with it?

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Britt

How do they get the cap off?

Bjjexpertise@be

Haha good point. It would probably have to either be coated in something that cannot be glued together or made in some sort weird material.

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Tom Yum

Baby steps.....baby steps.

The first thing these folks will probably do is characterize the stuff using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) or Mass Spectrometry to identify what it is made of. The resulting product of these tests: a readout of peaks, corresponding with frequencies. These frequencies are compared to frequencies of known bonds (Carbon-Carbon, Carbon-Nitrogen, etc) and other combinations. The reader can then determine the structure of the sample.

In addition to this, they will look at its surface properties. This is done by using a method called Atomic Force Microscopy. They can electronically scan the surface and see its consistency. Some interesting calculations can come out of this. There are other mechanical property tests that can be done on this as well.

Once they get an idea of what this stuff is made of, they will think about different routes of synthesizing molecules to make this stuff in a lab. Once a few low-energy cost, relatively safe and economically convenient synthesis routes are determined, some crazy engineer will step in and design a stream lined process for making this stuff more quickly and efficiently.

In my amateur opinion (it is amateur) you are correct. They will probably find a way to dehydrate or dry this stuff into some kind of powder on the surface of interest, add water and it'll stick or dissolve it into a gel.

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