Why Super Glue Is Perfect For Gluing Skin

Why does superglue always stick to your hands and never what you want it to? Get a little smarter every day with Brilliant. Visit https://brilliant.org/veritasium for a 30-day free trial and 20% off your annual premium subscription. A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Allison Christy and Dr. John Bobo for their invaluable expertise, fresh perspectives, and explanations. Thank you to Emily Von Stein and Chris Masahiro at Aron Alpha, Dr. Chantelle Champagne, and Dr. Rohit Gupta for their time and contributions to the initial research that laid the groundwork for this project. Try Snatoms! A molecular modelling kit I invented where the atoms snap together. https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up to the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ANIMATION CORRECTION: At 4:52, the negative charge should be drawn on the carbon at the end of the chain, not on the second to last carbon. This also holds during the polymerization process (5:15), where the negative charge should move right to the end of the chain. ▀▀▀ 0:00 The Invention of Super Glue 2:43 How Does Super Glue Work? 5:38 How To Get Superglue Off Your Skin 8:33 Why Is Super Glue So Strong? 12:00 Why Doesn’t Super Glue Work on plastic? 13:45 Mixing Super Glue and Baking Soda 15:30 Using Super Glue Underwater 15:59 Super Glue On Wounds 19:47 A Solution To Microplastics? ▀▀▀ References and Credits: Dr. Harry Coover Jr. (Nov 2023) via Sutori - https://ve42.co/sutori Allison Christy, Closed-loop recyclable plastics from poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg2295 About Cyanoacrylate Adhesives. via Permabond - https://ve42.co/permab Kodak Eastman In Wikipedia - https://ve42.co/kodakw Harry Coover and the Invention of Super Glue. (Mar 2022) via SciHi Blog - https://ve42.co/scihio Humphrey Sam Samuel (May 2024). Cyanoacrylate Chemistry and Polymerization Mechanisms. - https://ve42.co/pcbioc Radical polymerization.. In Wikipedia - https://ve42.co/wikira O