When I was 14, I tried to launch my mountain bike skyward in a fit of blind rage and teenage angst. For the briefest of instants, I broke free of gravity’s grip, soared over the pavement in silence. Then I plowed into the blacktop at 25 miles per hour, crashing in a tangle of steel and bone. My left ankle lodged between the bicycle’s frame and the ground and shattered. It took two surgeries and a sack full of titanium hardware to put it back together and it still gives me trouble to this day. Maybe if they had used worm glue, I wouldn’t walk with a limp.

Scientists at the University of Utah are re-creating the glue of the sandcastle worm, an undersea worm that glues sand, rocks, and bits of shell around itself to form a protective shell. The glue is strong—stronger than Super Glue—and, of course, works underwater.

So far they’ve managed to make a glue that passes human toxicity tests. Now the trick is engineering the glue to degrade over time at the same rate bones heal. Presently, the glue holds fast for far too long. Still, it holds great promise for fools like me who shatter their bones. Strong glue would’ve saved me two surgeries—the initial second reconstruction surgery and the third surgery to remove all the metal they stuck in during the first two. The gluing procedure also would’ve been less invasive, preventing damage to muscles and tendons.

Link to Gizmag article