I guess you could say I like to be wowed when searching the Internet for blog-worthy topics. Take yesterday’s post, for example: What isn’t amazing about an entire subculture of people who use so-called “speed adhesives” to cheat at ping-pong? Please, allow me:Nothing.Same goes for the real-life Spider-Man suit someone is allegedly working on somewhere in the world that will be ready in, like, five more years. What can I say? I’m a man of very specific tastes. I like to be wowed.
Long story short, I got wowed today by an article entitled “Natural Remedy” (www.adhesivesmag.com/CDA/Articles/Green/9111fd18b84fb010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____) that first ran in the April 2006 issue ofASI. And while it’s not uncommon to run into your own magazine’s articles in the ether of cyberspace, it is unusual to forget that you’ve already read the following passage at least two other times in your life:
Because C. crescentus is so small, the pulling force of 1 micronewton generates a huge stress of 70 newtons per square millimeter. That stress, which the bacterial adhesions could sometimes withstand, is equivalent to five tons per square inch - three or four cars balanced on top of a quarter. By contrast, commercial “super” glue breaks when a shear force of 18-28 newtons per square millimeter is applied.
Is this not one of the most incredible things ever written? How is it that this sort of news didn’t appear on the front page of every major newspaper in the world? How could I have forgotten having read it already while proofreading articles back in April of ’06?
Some would say that it’s simply man’s nature to take technology and the wonders of the world for granted, but I’m not sure that’s the case. Perhaps there are things in this world whose extraordinariness just isn’t meant to be understood (or at least fully comprehended), and so we forget about them until reminded somewhere down the road that there exists a bacteria that uses a waterproof adhesive - the strongest in all of nature - to stay where it is…and you couldn’t shake it loose even if you had awish.
Click on the link above to read the “Natural Remedy” article, and then come back and tell us what blows your mind when it comes to adhesives and sealants technology.
Surprise Me
By Brian Hayes
December 11, 2008
Managing Editor