News Materials Science

Microbe holds fast

By Aimee Cunningham

- More than 2 years ago

A common aquatic microbe makes a sticky substance that produces “the strongest biological adhesion ever discovered,” says biophysicist Jay X. Tang of Brown University in Providence, R.I. The adhesive might lead scientists to new water-resistant glues.

SUPER STICKER. A Caulobacter crescentus cell (bottom)—with adhesive at the tip of its stalk—divides to produce a daughter cell (at top) with a flagellum.