The natural building block α-lipoic acid can be used to make polymers that behave like superglue and are easy to depolymerise locally, US researchers show in Science.

Glue comes in all shapes and sizes, with just as many applications. The downside of many types of glue is that they do their job a bit too well, making them non-recyclable and bad for the environment. But you don’t want to compromise on the quality of your glue: it should really stick. Subhajit Pal, Phillip Messersmith and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a simple but versatile polymer based on a molecule that occurs naturally in the body: (R)-α-lipoic acid (αLA).