Smart Sutures Tie Themselves

edwilli writes "Scientific American has an interesting article on "smart" thermoplastic materal that can tie itself into a knot. Finally you can throw away those velcro shoes."

awesome

[tps12]

This is going to be just like in Back to the Future, part II, when the main character, Marty "Martin" McFly (played by actor Michael "J" Fox, now of the famous sitcom he stars in), wears some sneakers which light up and tie themselves, made by Nike [nike.com].

One word: tight as hell.

Re:Wait...

[tps12]

Or like a self-tying suture? j/k, thx for the heads up.

;)

Re:awesome

[carlos_benj]

This is going to be just like in Back to the Future...

So they could combine that movie with "Doc Hollywood" where he wants to be a plastic surgeon in Hollywood and he can still drive a cool car, be a country doc and travel ahead in time to learn new surgical techniques and bring back new gadgets and they could call it "Back to the Suture: A Stitch in Time"

A real challenge

[Darth_brooks]

And thus an old and outdated practical joke gains new life: Shoes that tie themselves together

Self-tying shoes

[!splut]

Well, it'd be great if I had a pair of thermoplastic shoelaces that snugly knotted themselves for me. It wouldn't be so great if I needed a knife to get my shoes off. Can these things be untangled?

Old

[Transcendent]

I've seen material like this years ago. They did it on Beyond 2000 or some show like that on the Discovery Channel. They showed how you can bend this material (they spelled a name) into a shape, then dip it in a chemical, straighten it out agian, and when you apply heat, it goes right back to how it was. (the order of events may be off, but thats basically how it went)

Didn't really tie itself did it.

[mindstrm]

All it did was tighten itself up.

They heat it up, it shrinks, and tightens the knot nicely.

Useful, but not exactly a self tying knot.