

Self-healing polymer uses sunlight to repair itself - rogercosseboom
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/03/a-polymer-that-can-fix-its-own-scratches.ars

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physcab
Interesting. What's weird is that polymers typically degrade under UV light.
Think way back to when you used those play-school shovels and left them out in
the sand for a couple days. I guarantee that you saw some cracks.

One of my favorite professors here is doing research on self-healing metals.
It's pretty sweet. They're using magnesium alloys for structural self-healing
applications because magnesium exhibits a martensitic transformation (i.e it
changes shape when you heat it). Oddly enough, martensitic metals are used in
bra-supports so that they return to their original shape when washed, yet
still give good support.

I love materials science.

