July 2, 2002 — Two Lehigh University researchers say they have developed a smart rubber adhesive that could one day offer a protective coating to boats or aid in surgery, according to the journal Nature.

Sureurg Khongtong and Gregory Ferguson, who wrote about their discovery in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, said the synthetic rubber behaves like a kind of Velcro at the molecular scale — with hooks connected to springs. The springs are loose when cool but more tightly coiled when warm, making the hooks advance and retract from the material’s surface, the report said.

The researchers said the polymer’s attributes suggest it could be used to form an antifouling coating for boat hulls or control cell adhesion in surgery.