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Self-assembling materials

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The first stage of blood clotting is the formation of a plug, seen here, which is made up of platelets (seen in gold) and structures called von Willebrand Factor (vWF), seen in red. The vWF structures are normally present in blood in coiled up form, but in the presence of the flow from a bleeding wound they unfurl to form long, sticky strands, which bind the platelets together.

How to stop leaks — the way blood does

Harnessing the principle that allows blood to clot, MIT researchers are working on new synthetic materials to plug holes.

January 8, 2013