On The Nature Of Slime: Molecular Engineering

Effugas writes: "New Scientist is running a surprisingly readable series about the nature of slime made from polymer chains. Far more fascinating set of articles than I would have expected; for all the theoretical talk of grey goo and nanotech robotics, chemists really are the ones doing the largest scale engineering on the smallest of scales. I especially enjoyed the article about the hagfish, which can when under duress turn the five gallons of water around it into utterly impenetrable sludge -- instantaneously." The article also has a great do-it-yerself recipe for some bouncy homemade slime.