Glueless

Getting stuff to stick together has been a problem for mankind since the dawn of time.

That sweeping statement does require some clarification along the lines of "whilst things can quite easily be stuck together the problem is keeping them stuck together". 

I have plenty of first hand experience of such sticky or rather non-sticky issues. 

I have absolutely no ability or skill when it comes to matters of Do-it-Yourself, Home Maintenance or simple make and mend. I work on the pretence that there are plenty of tradespersons out there who rely on a steady stream of paying work for their livelihood so why not just use them as and when required. 

If however I am a bit short of cash or more to the point cannot get anyone to come around and look at a problem let alone provide a quote I will assume the default position. For me that is to blather everything is a strong glue and hope for the best. 

My father was a great fan of what I would unfortunately refer to as Poxy Resin. A few years back there was Araldite, that potent adhesive. It served me well. In 1983 a visual stunt presentation was set up to show the strength of Araldite by gluing a Ford Cortina saloon car to an advertising hoarding on a London street. The tagline was "it also sticks handles to teapots". 

Even before that when I was a youngster there was polystyrene cement which although best suited for assembling plastic model kits was quite versatile as long as you avoided getting tangled up in the stringy threads of gloop which was an unfortunate side effect of unsupervised use. The chemical odours could also be quite overpowering in an enclosed space such as under the bed clothes. 

The availability of latex glues such as Copydex in the school craft sessions made for many hours of wonderful play with more of the stuff being used to coat hands and faces than actual paper and materials. There was and is still a certain thrill in peeling off the rubberised glue as though shedding a skin. 

Into adulthood I was completely seduced by the concept of "No More Nails" when that product and similar arrived on the shelves down at the local store. I took the name to be a guarantee or warranty, a promise of universal application and permanence wherever I felt compelled to use it. 

In all of my glue based experiences as man and boy there have been inevitable disappointments. That initially solid and tight joint, slot, peg, flap and seamless repaired breakage have inevitably always failed. 

Notwithstanding my mis-use of glue there is the age-old  problem that the material itself will eventually degrade and perish. It has therefore been a preoccupation of scientists and inventors to come up with something truly durable, versatile and just about indestructible. 

In the natural world many living creatures rely on a sticky quality to survive and thrive. 

In 2007 a new substance called "Geckel Glue" was developed in a laboratory. 

The name gives some clues as to origins of the adhesive, yes, it combines the sticky powers of those loveable reptiles ,geckos and less charismatic but equally endearing seashore mussels. A strange dynamic duo at first glance but an ideal marriage of characteristics. 

Geckos can walk upside down across surfaces thanks to the arrays of hairs on their feet. There are so many hairs that they can produce an adhesion of roughly 10 N/cm2. Although researchers have made synthetic gecko-inspired adhesives before and they work fine on dry surfaces , such glues,like geckos,do not work very well in water. 

As a young child on family seaside holidays I was always trying to prise off mussels from their rocky ramparts or seaweed entanglements. This was always difficult to do even if sneaking up quietly and attempting a quick whack with the wooden handle of a plastic spade. (No bivalve molluscs were injured in such activities with a futile makeshift weapon).

Scientists must have had the same youthful experiences as myself and decided to combine a gecko-hair structure in silicone with a synthetic adhesive, based on the protein glues that mussels produce to hold fast onto wet surfaces. 

The addition of the synthetic mussel glue increased the adhesive power of the silicone mock-hairs by nearly fifteen times.

The resultant "Geckel Glue" has some unique features. 

It can be reused over a thousand times and so can be used in a variety of medical applications, including water-resistant bandages and band-aids, drug delivery patches and for repairing skin wounds. It could as a spin-off also provide adhesion for underwater vehicles and robots and be used by divers to temporarily adhere to a surface. 

Unfortunately the initial promise of Geckel Glue some 10 years ago now does not seem to have come to fruition and I have not seen it in my usual DIY haunts or otherwise actively marketed. 

I suppose I can wait until the next best adhesive comes along.

That pile of broken furniture, ceramics, toys and miscellenea in the corner of my garage is going nowhere.