The World's Strongest Glue

missing_myself writes "Yahoo news reports the world's strongest glue is made by bacteria. "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." Time to get rid of the duct tape? "

"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[awtbfb]

Blasphemy!

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[takeya]

Time to replace the adhesive on duct tape with this stuff!

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[StringBlade]

Think twice about that suggestion the next time you accidentally (or on purpose) stick some duct tape to any part of your exposed flesh.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[jocknerd]

Actually, I read or saw something last year that said the best way to get rid of warts to put duct tape over them. Worked better than all the OTC medicines.

The only thing duct tape seems to have a problem sticking to is duct work in my attic.

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[max99ted]

I can confirm that - but only works well with planters warts. Also it usually takes a couple of months...

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[st0rmshad0w]

How would you unroll it?

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[Breakfast Pants]

On the flip side it would be teflon.

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[ToasterofDOOM]

That tape would have to be called 1337 74p3, and I would totally buy it

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[Pneuma ROCKS]

Heh, so how do you roll it then? And how do you keep it rolled?

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[senatorpjt]

They sell rolls of teflon tape. It's used for sealing threads on metal pipes.

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[chris_eineke]

-funroll-loops of course.

Ill be impressed if.....

[coogan]

It can keep my wife's mouth shut for even just an hour....

Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

[B3ryllium]

He'd make some out of bubblegum and a piece of cloth ripped from his shirt.

Can it be spun into long filaments?

[OneDeeTenTee]

And does it dissolve after being exposed to air?

I think I invented this several years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Or something close... it was alive and sticky, that's for sure.

How do we get it out of the bottle?

[kbob88]

If it's that sticky, how do we ever get it out of the bottle?

On another note, this stuff would would really make the old glue-friend's-hand-to-forehead-or-other-body-part prank very painful...

Good point!

[Spy der Mann]

I recall (from my Dungeons n dragons times) that there was some kind of super-glue and some kind of super-oil. You needed the super-oil to apply it into the superglue bottle so it wouldn't stick.

Taking into account that the researchers are having problems with getting the glue off the instruments they use to fabricate it, perhaps we do need a super-oil in this case.

(And fact is stranger than fiction once more!)

An Idea I just came up with is that the superglue could be embedded inside small (nano? hmmm) part

Teflon too

[kbob88]

Apparently something similar happened with Teflon too. The engineers at Dupont spent a very long time trying to get it to adhere to various surfaces. Teflon is so non-sticky that it took them years to get it to stick to metal pots and pans. Finally they came up with techniques of multiple layering and various methods to bake it on. More at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_173.html [straightdope.com]

Re:Teflon too

[ScrewMaster]

Yes, and the bonding technique is fairly costly, I understand. I read about a new process a few years ago that used high voltage arcs to bond teflon to metal. Supposedly it was substantially cheaper but I don't know if they ever went anywhere with it.

Re:Even more important:

[Ragnarrokk]

With great difficulty?

``Ragnarok

And Murphy's law says.....

[Anonymous Coward]

How much do you want to bet that the glue only lives up to these claims on one substance in the entire universe ... dry human skin (i.e. fingers)?

New Glue?

[Anonymous Coward]

Horses everywhere rejoice.

Re:New Glue?

[fireman sam]

This just in...
      It appears that the bacteria grow at an increased rate if they are grown inside the gut of a dead horse. Oh well.

Re:New Glue?

[Martin Blank]

I'll be looking out for the Slashdot-branded version of it, then.

my char

[cryptoz]

My chair is so covered in duct/duck tape due to the armrests falling off that nobody but me will sit it in. Get rid of duct/duck tape? I think not!

NOOOO

[popetty]

This will mark the end of grandmas loosing their dentures while skydiving.

Re:NOOOO

[MyLongNickName]

grandmas loosing their dentures

I was going to go grammar Nazi on you, but then I realized "loosing" actually works in this context.

Re:NOOOO

[MyLongNickName]

Don't you just hate it when some schmuck steals your joke just before you post it? I've been following that other guy... he's a real karma whore. But he's too dumb to realize that +5 Funny doesn't get you karma.

Amazing new unit

[qbwiz]

I'd never heard of this new "cars/quarter" unit (invented by the same guy who gave us the LoC unit, presumably), so I had to look it up [iu.edu] to see that this glue can hold around 10,000 psi (70,000 kPa).

Re:Amazing new unit

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not too hard to design a glue that can withstand the force of three cars piled *on top* of a quarter, as opposed to three cars *hanging* from the quarter. There are two values: one for tensile strength, and one for compression strength. You reported the wrong one.

Re:Amazing new unit

[jamesh]

Maybe it would have made a little more sense if they said you could hang three cars(*) off of a quarter. Not quantative by any means but give's an approximate idea of it's strength.

(*) Do they mean 'matchbox' cars (a few grams), automobiles (~750kg to ~4000kg), or train carriages (who knows)?

Re:Amazing new unit

[subtropolis]

What would you hold the quarter up with, then?

Re:Amazing new unit

[drudd]

It's quarters all the way up....

Re:Amazing new unit

[marcosdumay]

70 MPa (~700 atm) is much better. Tank you.

It is even worse because people that are not from the United States (like me) don't even know what a quarter looks like. So, this 'intuitive' measurement is anthing but it.

Re:Amazing new unit

[kzinti]

It is even worse because people that are not from the United States (like me) don't even know what a quarter looks like.

It's about twice the diameter of a dime.

You're welcome.

Re:Amazing new unit

[ArkonChakravanti]

But then people not from the US won't know what a dime...
Oh, wait...

Re:Amazing new unit

[Firehed]

Not to mention that cars don't all weigh the same amount and not too many people have the vaguest idea of what three cars stacked vertically exhert on about a round inch (like a square inch, but not as pointy on the corners). I'm definately thinking something relative to a fat woman in stilettos puncturing your foot would be more world-friendly.

Of course, the unit makes almost no sense anyways, because most people are going to puzzle about the force it takes to tear two glued things apart when the measur

Re:Amazing new unit

[grimsweep]

That's easy. Just take any non-American car of a similar make and model. Then, find the ten most crucial parts of the engine that contribute to longer life. Replace them with the cheapest parts that you can find on the market, and add a ton or two to the frame to reduce gas milage.

Viola! Instant American-made vehicle.

Re:Amazing new unit

[whitehatlurker]

The other number to look at is that the actual force required to break the bond of the stuff for one bacterium in situ is about a micro-newton. That means that the area in contact must be uhn, 1x10^-6 N / 70 MPa = about 14x10^-9 mm^2, or 120 nanometers square, or really really tiny.

A significant question is "can they get a fully effective dollop of bug juice the size of a quarter to hold up their cars?"

Re:Amazing new unit

[Manchot]

Are you kidding me? Cars/quarter is definitely an SI unit, just like the area of a football field and the thickness of a human hair.

Re:Amazing new unit

[senatorpjt]

and like measuring digital storage in Libraries of Congress, and a number of items by how many times they could go to the moon and back if stacked vertically.

Surgical adhesive

[andy314159pi]

"One possibility would be as a biodegradable surgical adhesive."

Now I can see surgical scissors being left in your abdomen and crazy-glued to your internal organs.

Re:Surgical adhesive

[patio11]

Now I can see surgical scissors being left in your abdomen and crazy-glued to your internal organs.

Yes, but at least they'll be fastened securely. Nothing to ruin your day like scissors bouncing around your spleen.

I await the lawsuit

[ip_freely_2000]

I'm sure Elmer will say they have a patent on sticking one thing to another. Or maybe that was the Porn Industry's patent.

Yes, that's fine but...

[M0b1u5]

Yes, that's fine.

But, how do I get the top off the freaking bottle??

Re:Yes, that's fine but...

[suv4x4]

"But, how do I get the top off the freaking bottle??"

It'll probably be sold dry or require you to mix it with something else to start working.

Two great quotes put together

[rtaylor]

"There are obvious applications since this adhesive works on wet surfaces,"

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

super super glue remover

[mrshowtime]

I think the first thing they need to develop is the super super glue remover, otherwise the "hyper glue" would be too dangerous to use. Or they could use it in the ads: "Our Hyper Glue -NEVER- comes off, EVER!"

Re:super super glue remover

[zakezuke]

I think the first thing they need to develop is the super super glue remover, otherwise the "hyper glue" would be too dangerous to use. Or they could use it in the ads: "Our Hyper Glue -NEVER- comes off, EVER!"

Lots of luck, I still haven't found a Gorilla Glue [gorillaglue.com] remover, I mean besides chisel, scraper, or sandpaper. Granted it may not nessicarly be the strongest glue on Earth sold in stores.... I believe this like other uratane glues is rated at about 3600psi.

Let us focus on Gorilla glue remover before we th

Re:super super glue remover

[ScrewMaster]

I remember when Eastman 910 was sold at retail back in the mid-seventies. That stuff was incredible (it was eventually diluted and sold as Crazy Glue) all you had to do was got a tiny drop of it on your hands and touch something and the only way you'd get it off was to lose skin. I accidentally glued my left index finger to my forehead ... not funny. No, not funny at all. We eventually discovered that acetone would dissolve it but in the meantime I had my goddamn hand stuck to my head for several hours. A friend of my mothers' glued her hand to her nose. Now that was funny. And it happened instantly, you didn't get a chance to pull it loose.

stretching credibility

[PMuse]

Who cares how much weight it can handle piled on it?
We want to know how much weight it can handle suspended from it.

Re:stretching credibility

[sketerpot]

Compressive strength != tensile strength, as any Roman engineer could tell you.

You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[failure-man]

Three cars per quarter? I don't get it. How much is that in Eiffel Towers per square millicubit?

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[darkitecture]

Three cars per quarter? I don't get it. How much is that in Eiffel Towers per square millicubit?

You don't get it, do you? This is America. The land of the stupid measurements. Where there's 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to the mile, 16 ounces to a pound, 2000 pounds to the short ton and getting 543816 votes more than your opponent means you lose an election.

Sorry... couldn't help myself. God bless America for boobies and donuts! :)

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[chris_eineke]

God bless America for boobies and donuts!

Every country has boobies and pastries. On the other hand, if you want pastries on boobies... yeah, I think you can only get that in the good ole us of a. :)

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[soft_guy]

You forgot the most american of units: football fields (length) and Volkwagon Beetles (volume).

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[colinrichardday]

Did you ever patronize Debbie duz Donuts, a topless donut store shop in Fort Collins, CO? Now defunct, I believe.

There...

[cr0sh]

You don't get it, do you? This is America. The land of the stupid.

...Fixed it for ya!

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[micheas]

16 ounces to a pound,

You grossly over simplify our system.

For example "which is heavier a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?"

31 grams in an ounce of gold. (troy ounces)
28 grams in an ounce of feathers. (imperial ounces)

373 grams in a pound of gold (12 ounces in a troy pound)
454 grams in a pound of feathers (16 ounces in an imperial pound)

So counter intitively a pound of feathers is heaver than a pound of gold. But 16 ounces of gold does weigh more than 16 ounces of feathers.

Want to get into get into mea

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[drinkypoo]

The joke is "Why do women make poor engineers? Because they've been told all their lives that..." etc. Also typically the joke is more like "eight inches" because in most of the world where this joke is considered to be funny, a 6" pecker ain't impressive, but that's a stylistic difference.

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[suv4x4]

"Three cars per quarter? I don't get it."

Me neither. They didn't even mention the paint color of the cars.

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[Pig Hogger]

How much is that in Eiffel Towers per square millicubit?

Dunno about Eiffel towers, but it's about fifty one thousand six hundred and ninety six Washington Monuments per football field.

Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

It is approximately: 3.876 * 10^-7 Eiffel Towers per square millicubit.
Derivation:
1 Car (average): 2 tons
Surface area of a quarter: 462.244 mm^2
1 Eiffel Tower (average): 7000 tons
cubit (per google) = 45.72 cm
millicubit = .4572 mm
millicubit^2 = .20903184 mm^2
3 cars / quarter = 6 tons / 462.244 mm^2
1 Eiffel Tower / millicubit^2 = 7000 tons / .20903184 mm^2
(6/462.244)/(7000/.20903184) = .000000387611 = 3.876 * 10^-7 Eiffel Towers per square millicubit

Have a nice day! :)

Combine the powers

[darkitecture]

"Time to get rid of the duct tape?"

Get rid of it?! No way! I say improve it. Imagine duct tape combined with this supersuperglue. My God, it'd be like Astroboy and Atlas working together to defeat a common foe!

Or something.

Standard units?

[h4rr4r]

"quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it" Can any one convert this to libraries of congress/volkswagen beetles?

Re:Standard units?

[AvitarX]

It is one 6 VW Beetles on one DBitLoC (Dust Bunny in the Libray of Congress)

I hope this helps carify things.

obligatory simpsons reference

[Paralizer]

Hey dad, do you have any industrial strength adhesive I can use on my face?

Strong, sure.

[Atzanteol]

But how does it *taste*?

Re:Strong, sure.

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"But how does it *taste*?"

This glue tastes like... burning.

It's not how it tastes ...

[triclipse]

... it's what happens when you sniff it.

you're not doing it right

[commodoresloat]

you're not supposed to eat the glue; you just sniff it.

Amateurs.

Compression, tension, shear?

[corsec67]

How strong is this glue under tension and shear?

I have an invisible glue here that can withstand an infinite amount of force under compression, and it is massless. Tension is a while 'nother matter.

Re:Compression, tension, shear?

[That's Unpossible!]

I bet your post would be funnier if I was a physics dork.

Re:Compression, tension, shear?

[colinrichardday]

Compression is pushing in on something, like cars on the road (the cars compress the road). Tension is pulling out on something, like hanging a weight on a string (the weight applies tension to the string). Shear involves applying a sideway force, like using shears to cut paper. The shears cut through the paper, and the cut is along the paper.

Reinforced concrete combines the compression strength of concrete with the tensile strength of steel.

Glue Bacteria?

[suv4x4]

"The single-celled bacterium uses sugar molecules to stay put in rivers, streams, and water pipes, a new study found."

Now... if I feed it something (like, I guess sugar), would it grow though? Imagine the instructions: "mix with sugar 4:1"...

And further, if I use it to glue a broken sugar bowl, should I expect a self-replicating glue disaster?

"It's not clear how the glue actually works, however, but researchers presume some special proteins must be attached to the sugars."

Well that sounds ensuring, right guys. Reminds me of that movie, The Stuff (1985) [imdb.com].

A bunch of scientists like our folks here, discover weird white substance on one of the Earth Poles (please save me the jokes on what you think it was). So naturally, what you think he does? He tastes it, and it's good.
So they just come with the tankers and start pumping it out and selling it as food. Turns out it eats you from the inside and turns you into a zombie.

By the way, has anyone tried to eat that glue and see what it tastes like?

Re:Glue Bacteria?

[soft_guy]

By the way, has anyone tried to eat that glue and see what it tastes like?

Yes. It tastes like burning.

Force?

[StevenHenderson]

force felt by a quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it.

Thought the force is same no matter what it is applied to, no?

F = m*a, anyone?

Re:Force?

[vialation]

F does equal M*A. In our world, the force of gravity follows this equation...the acceleration is commonly known as G, which is 9.8 m/s^2. So Force =G times mass. Therefore, the force is directly proportional to the mass, and the more stacked up upon it, the more force.

Re:Force?

[Nasarius]

Right. They mean pressure (force/area), not force.

Made of sugar?

[Nahor]

The single-celled bacterium uses sugar molecules

Ah' 'us' wan'ed 'o 'as'e 'hi' ne' g'ue 'u' 'ow ah'm 'huck! he'' me, p'ea'e!

Placement

[955301]

So now all they have to do is separate it into two chemical subcomponents which can be used in a dispenser like the existing epoxy syringe and we'll actually be able to use it. At least until a nano-tech replacement 10 times stronger is found...

Tell bad duct-tape joke; *duct*

[jolshefsky]

There's no way to get rid of duct tape. It has been so well marketed that people actually believe it is superior to other tapes. There's no force stronger than a belligerently held opinion.

I mean, the duct-tape has a gummy glue that dries out, the fibrous tape tears easily, has poor high-temperature properties, and is not waterproof. What more could you want?

Re:Tell bad duct-tape joke; *duct*

[TubeSteak]

I mean, the duct-tape has a gummy glue that dries out, the fibrous tape tears easily, has poor high-temperature properties, and is not waterproof. What more could you want?

How about a suit made of duct tape.
That would be cool.

Re:Tell bad duct-tape joke; *duct*

[fabs64]

As someone said gaffer tape is often a better option.
That said DUCT tape is very good at what it's designed for, try and guess what that is :-P

Re:Tell bad duct-tape joke; *duct*

[Chirs]

It's certainly not for use on ducts...for that you want silver tape (metal-based stuff).

Duct tape is good for temporary repairs on varous things though.

Re:Tell bad duct-tape joke; *duct*

[Cthefuture]

Try gaffer tape some time.

Digg had this 3 days ago about

[LittleLebowskiUrbanA]

Digg's starting to repalce /. for me. Less politics. Give it a try.

FINE!

[scenestar]

Then leave.

Just don't come back crying once we bring out the drugs and hookers.

Re:Digg had this 3 days ago about

[LittleLebowskiUrbanA]

Imagine...a tech site without Roland Piquepalle. What more can you ask for?

Better than barnacles?

[Deadstick]

I've seen similar comments about the stuff that barnacles glue themselves to ship bottoms with...wonder how this compares?

rj

Re:Better than barnacles?

[Cthefuture]

I don't think they ever found a way to produce it in quantity.

Bacteria on the other hand might be relatively easy to produce in vast quantities because it tends to reproduce quickly.

Finally!

[SeaFox]

Something to keep the chairs planted firmly on the floor at Micorsoft!

It might be strong but...

[TekPolitik]

I'll bet any amount of money my son will still be able to break all the wheels of his toy cars after I've glued them back on.

In my tired, decaffeinated state...

[Phase Shifter]

I misread the title as "The world's strongest clue." ...and I thought I knew a few people who could really use it.

Oh well, I'm sure there's some application for this.

Entropic end of Earth Imminent

[Vo0k]

Bacteria are known to mutate, right?
Some mutations spread uncontrollably, known fact.
Sugar is one of more common substances in the world.

Imagine the world where stepping on the grass means they have to amputate your legs to free you. And the glue infection spreading, things getting gradually more sticky everywhere. Up to the point when everyone is glued to the ground, and everything that moves, stops. Entropic death, no more movement.

I for one welcome our sticky bacterial overlords.

Re:Now accepting ideas for practical jokes.

[42Penguins]

B: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
P: Uh... I think so Brain, but where will we find that much caulobacter crescentus, three cars, and a quarter at this time of night?

Re:cars on a quarter?

[darkitecture]

Would the force change if 3 cars were piled onto a surface that was 1 square meter - no....

Well, if there's more surface area, then there's a wider distribution of weight and the pressure per square inch would diminish.

Re:Forget nanotubes!

[shaitand]

Bah, this solves all our problems. Imagine all the fuel we can save with this stuff. Just stick the payload to the glue and then rocket the relatively light glue to space instead of the payload!

And you Europeans thought the American educational system was inferior, hah!

Re:crustiness

[ScrewMaster]

No, I think that's more of a personality issue.