The fabled ‘healing factor’ that many of us wish we had to remain perpetually in the prime of our lives, not to mention being able to be a general bad-ass like Wolverine without the fear of death (although, it must be noted, that the pain itself is very real). Well, don’t you wish that the same can be said of your modern day consumer electronics devices? Remember all those fragile tablets and smartphones that are unable to withstand a drop or two on concrete? If only they were made out of stronger material, and this is what scientists at the CIDETEC Center for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain have done. This ingenius invention of a plastic polymer has self-healing properties, as evident by the video above.
Using a polymer that they call polyurethane, cutting it in half is not the end of the story, as that is only the beginning. Whenever the polyurethane is cut, its disulphides will be able to redistribute themselves back into their original form. This is a completely natural reaction at room temperature, and in a matter of 2 hours, it can “heal” itself to about 97% of its original shape. Not only that, the previously cut section can be stretched by hand without any loss in its strength. Truly amazing stuff, and you have got to watch the video above to be wowed by it all.
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