Is the benefit to technology. "Super Glue" was invented in the Vietnam era to close wounds, if I remember right.

I think somebody at DARPA has been reading some space marine novels!!! Next they will be genetically modifying soldiers so they have two hearts and the ability to regenerate from wounds that would kill a normal man in mere minutes....

What, no reference to "Leggo - the wonder leg grower!"? I confess to being disappointed...

How long til some South London stab victim dies due to his mates filling him to bursting with expanding wall-insulation foam?

We already have QuikClot ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuikClot ) and HemCon ( http://www.hemcon.com/EducationCenter/HowHemConDressingsWork.aspx ), a shellfish protein based patch for rapid sealing of arterial bleeds. This will just be another delivery system for existing tech.

We are approaching the future then.

CARBON NANOTUBES!

There's nothing they can't do.

Heh! I always wanted a can of SynthSkin!

Too bad the nearest equivalent we have is expensive rubbish: Dermabond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_bandage

I have used normal superglue to seal a deep cut on my finger... Worked very well. I don't recommend anyone else do it, though. It got quite warm.

At your own risk, etc.

This is DARPA, the designers should think themselves lucky there wasn't a specification that it must use frickin' lazers and be able to fly.

Spackle?!? REALLY?? This is just TOO funny to pass by at this time on a Friday!!

I can see the headline now: 'US Marine Saved By Fellow Soldier's Liberal Squirt Of Spackle'.

Puerile I know, but, c'mon!!

Paris - She knows what to do with Spackle (fnaar)

DARPA should ask Josh Wheadon for advice. I saw this very gunk being used on a wound in "Serenity"

Tim

headlines 6 months from now

2 soldiers bled to death from losing their right arms

because design flaws in the super spackle only allowed it to be applied by right handed people.

Designers say it was meant o be applied with only 1 hand

>No Goons?

>What, no reference to "Leggo - the wonder leg grower!"

Sssh, they're keeping that quiet because they'd have to admit the invention of "Footo - the wonder boot exploder". Not to mention Scradj, which would upset all the physicists.

<Waits for audience applause, not a sausage, exits stage left, getting coat on the way>

Is nice, but it helps if the chosen words are relevant. The word "wingnut" - I don't think it means what you think it means....

Too true, too true.

This is why when glueing two things together with cyanoacrylate the inevitable result, after the requisite "hold together for 20 seconds", is that the two parts seperate easily but both are irrevocably glued to your fingers.

No thanks, I'm still wearing mine 'cos my hands are glued into the pockets.

I can confirm that UK A&E (casualty) departments do use superglue to seal up wounds, as I had a deep facial cut treated that way.

I guess the main advantage is that it's a lot quicker than stitching and maybe it also requires slightly less dexterity. However the main advantage from my point of view was that I didn't get much of a scar, thus preserving my Adonis-like looks.

Biofoam, in HALO does exactly the same job.

If its good enough for the Master Chief maybe darpa should have a look... hey wait, why not just make a 7 foot tall insurgent busting guy in a suit, possibly green, complete with frikkin' (boeing - not spartan) laser and "darpa" foam.

Mines the mark 5, Recon armour.

Super Glue was apparently used in Vietnam to seal wounds however, it was invented in 1942 by a gunsmith named Harry Coover who was trying to develop a clear plastic for gun sights.

No, I dont have a vast wealth of useless knowledge, it just so happened that it was in something I was reading today.

Paris: Cos shes been in many a sticky situation.

You are so so right!

So what we can deduce is that the powers that be are only interested in keeping us alive when they are engaged in a competition to see how many of each others people they can kill......

I really wish I hadn't got out of bed this morning.....

Arterial bleeds are the tricky bit. There is a lot of pressure behind them. 130mmHg (about 17k pascals or, to put it more clearly, 3603 Norris/nanoWales ) is a lot of pressure to deal with physically. It needs to chemically spasm the artery and even that is tricky. You would also find it tricky to apply as bleeding wound tend to be filled will blood (duh) and getting to the vessels would require a lot of swabbing.

Two square feet - difficult to get an injury like that without something else really bad happening. Still, if it works it would be brilliant. Nose bleeds sorted with a simple spray rather than all that sitting around pinching your nose. Squirt it through the end of you gastroscope in a general splash it around way to stop your bleeding ulcer or varicies. And of course all those severe injuries in civilian life when you need stabilisation before getting to the hospital. Never mind the military - whoever does this will make a fortune in the civilian medical sector.

...I'd like some around the house. Could save a fortune on emergency plumbing.

So if you're wounded enough to have 2 square feet, will this stuff be called Doc Martin?

Will it function as 'step-in' replacement boots?

Going by the specs, it sounds just like builders' expanding foam... very sticky stuff that, which dries solid and covers a large area!

A good name would be Flack Spackle!

The medical version of superglue uses ethanol as a solvent. The stuff you get in pound stores uses methanol, which is poisonous in smaller doses than ethanol.

And no, the fact that it contains a cyano- group is not much to worry about, since it's already bound tightly to something. Just don't heat it.