Super-Glue: hero or villain?
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Who this event is for
Location
JHB408 Snow Room, John Henry Brookes Building, Headington Campus
Details
** PLEASE NOTE: This event has changed location and will now be held in JHB408 Snow Room **
Super-Glue is invisible to the naked eye, has exceptional strength and displays incredibly fast ‘reactions’ – superpowers that allow it to stick instantaneously to anything (well, almost anything) in a smooth and seamless fashion. But just like plastic, another wonder material of the late 1950s, it’s proving to be the equivalence of kryptonite for our global eco-system. Join Professor James Broughton in the Adventures of
Super-Glue.
The plastic-fantastic era brought a revolution in materials, design and manufacturing - producing an avalanche of affordable plastic items from curvy furniture to disposable carrier bags. In a similar fashion, its sticky counterpart led to a plethora of innovative products including well known household brands like 3M’s Post-it Notes® and Elmer’s® Craft Glue, as well as Loctite’s Super-Glue® itself.
Today, an excess of non-degradable plastic products is threatening to ruin our living blue planet. Due to its permanence, glue too has become a super-villain, whilst the new heroes are now green, bio-inspired and, above all, reversible. But can Super-Glue defy extinction by evolving, and what form of super-character should it take?
James has worked with adhesives for over 20 years. He’s a Board Member of the Society of Adhesion and Adhesives, and Head of the Joining Technology Research Centre at Oxford Brookes.