Aquatic Worm Holds The Key to New Bone-Setting Glue
Creating an adhesive that can bond together bones has long presented researchers with some sticky problems. Many glues will not adhere to slick, wet surfaces, and those that do still tend to dissolve into the surrounding liquid. When setting shattered bones, surgeons instead must turn to metal screws and plates, a less-than-optimal process that often involves multiple surgeries and the lasting effects of metal implements inside the body. But researchers in Utah may have found the key to creating bone-setting glue, in a tiny, sandcastle-building aquatic worm. Building underwater castles is a lot like gluing together bones, it turns out. The sandcastle worm must cement bits of shell and grains of sand in place, just like bricks and mortar, by secreting an adhesive that will not dissolve in the surrounding seawater. That means the substance has to start as a malleable fluid, then harden to a...