Biomedical Materials Learn to Heal Themselves: Self-Healing Polymers, Hydrogels, and Artificial Muscles Are Mimicking Nature's Repair Mechanisms

Maintaining sterility in emergency and operating rooms can be challenging, especially in cases of highly infectious disease outbreaks or toxic spills. A simple nick in a surgical glove under such circumstances could have deadly consequences. But, now, a variety of promising new materials in development may lead to everything from self-healing gloves and bandages to bone, blood vessel, and muscle scaffolding implants that could repair themselves the way tissues do. In some cases, repair might be triggered by an external stimulus, such as heat; in other cases, these materials would naturally heal by themselves over time.