Stick around Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo
Chinese giant salamanders, the largest and longest-living amphibians in the world, excrete a goo from their skin that can be used to seal wounds – and it is better than most medical adhesives available today.
When giant salamanders are threatened or injured, their skin oozes a protein-rich mucus. Shrike Zhang at Harvard Medical School and his colleagues used this mucus to make glue for sticking skin back together after surgeries.
With the medical adhesives currently on the market, there is an important trade-off. Synthetic adhesives are very strong, but not very flexible and…
