The word: Velcro

IT started out 50 years ago as an alternative to buttons and zips on outdoor clothing. Today Velcro is used everywhere a good grip is needed. The material is ubiquitous. Where cars once had rivets and bolts, they now have Velcro. A short strip of the stuff held together the ventricles of the first artificial heart. It even has a place in space, where shuttle astronauts keep their ship tidy by anchoring bits of gear to patches on the wall. Yet by a strange twist that its inventor could never have foreseen, Australian botanists have discovered that Velcro’s very effectiveness…