image: A bent 3-D printed model of a human lumbar vertebrae (L1-L5) connected with hydrogel disks illustrates the versatility of the instantly tough bonding approach. The eight bonding procedures require less than 3 minutes. Hydrogels may be able to replace intervertebral discs in the future. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the June 21, 2017, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by D. Wirthl at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Linz, Austria, and colleagues was titled, "Instant tough bonding of hydrogels for soft machines and electronics." view more
Credit: [Credit: Soft Electronics Laboratory, Linz Institute of Technology]