When it comes to design, there’s no better source of inspiration than nature. Recently, scientists at MIT took inspiration from spiders to create a double-sided tape that sticks body issues together after surgery.
When it rains, spiders exude a special type of “glue” that allows them to catch prey despite the wet conditions. Getting tissues in the body to form a tight seal is difficult because water on their surface makes them slippery, so scientists created a sticky material made from polyacrylic acid that mimics the “glue” that spiders secrete. The resulting material is a sticky tape that quickly gets body tissues to stick together.
This could be a far better solution than sutures, which are basically stitches that hold a wound together and which can cause infections and pain. Still, while the material has been successfully testing on pig skin and lungs, it may be several years until this material is used on humans.
