Medical adhesives, such as DERMABOND Topical Skin Adhesive, are now being used in operating rooms and emergency rooms to close wounds in a faster and less painful way.

According to the Society of Plastics Engineers, the procedure is four times faster than administering sutures and does not require painful injections.

To apply the adhesive, doctors merely squeeze a sterile ampule while holding the edges of the wound together. Studies also demonstrate that the adhesive has superior healing results.

“This is particularly important for use in surgical procedures on the head or face where scarring is an important consideration,” said Dean M. Toriumi, M.D., associate professor of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Another medical adhesive is currently being developed for use in the home. LIQUIDERM liquid adhesive bandage by CLOSURE Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: CLSR) will soon be available for over-the-counter use to treat minor cuts and abrasions.

To learn more visit www.closuremed.com

-- North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.

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Clever scientisits have found a way to recycle old computers and use them to repair roads.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of discarded computers are tossed out every day. Fortunately, they can be ground down and the plastic recycled to become a major ingredient in a new pothole filler mix.

In the next five years, predict the experts at the Society of Plastics Engineers, about 150 million computers can be recycled in this way--enough to fill an acre of land to a height of 4,000 feet.

Recycling hard drives and their housings into roadways, it seems, can drive down our need for landfills, helping preserve the environment for all households.

-- North American Precis Syndicate, Inc

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(NAPS)--Some people may talk about a heart of gold, or a nose for news or feet of clay, but in the not-too-distant future, we may be getting new body parts reproduced from old cells using special polymers.

Other biodegradable polymers may deliver chemotherapy and other medicines directly to an area inside a body, slowly releasing it over a period of weeks, even years and then disappear.

Designers of the first artificial heart, looking for a long-life flexible material, selected the polymer used in women's girdles. It's still used today, 29 years later.

These new systems and devices are just part of the work and thoughts of Robert S. Langer, a 47-year-old professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Langer was honored recently at the Society of Plastics Engineers annual technical conference.

After receiving SPE's International Award, Langer presented in his keynote speech, a series of slides depicting changes in polymer technology. To the attendees--top global professionals in the industry--this is a common sight. However their attention was heightened when Langer showed slides of brain surgery as well as tissue engineering. Ears, fabricated out of polymers, have human cartilage cells distributed throughout the mold. They are then implanted on the backs of specially bred mice which lack the immune system that might reject human tissue. The host mice nourish the human tissue cells as they grow around the polymer molds. This will be used to grow noses as well as ears. Extending this into the human realm, Langer showed other slides of a 12-year-old boy whose life was transformed by the plastic chest implant that now protects his heart and gives him a semblance of a normal childhood.

-- North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.

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(NU)--What can you do with the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic from recycled soda bottles? If you pay attention to the labels when you're shopping, you'll find that you can wear it.

Manufacturers like Reebok, L.L. Bean, Lands' End, Bass, Lee Jeans, Code Bleu and Patagonia, to metnion a few, are using recycled PET plastic for trendy, seasonal clothes.

For many years, the Society of Plastics Engineers says, manufactureres have been using recycled PET plastic as filler for "down" jackets and sleeping bags. But now it's also finding its way into T-shirts, sweaters and shoes.

So look at the labels. You might find that the fabric tops of your new Reeboks are recycled plastic. And that soft fleece Patagonia pullover is, too.

PET plastic can be transferred to polyester, the main fiber in many of today's clothes. Polyester is less expensive than virgin cotton. And PET plastic is even less expensive than virgin polyester.

Besides, recycling is "in" these days. "People like to see what products their recycled bottles come back in," a Society of Plastics Engineers spokesman says.

Even before it's recycled, plastic is one of our most earth-friendly materials. It takes less energy to convert raw materials to plastic. Plastic's light weight saves fuel costs when transporting products to market. And since plastic bottles resist breakage, there are fewer losses during shipment. That means lower prices for consumers.

But back to the clothes. In garments, recycled PET plastic is breathable, wickable and highly durable. And it's 100 percent recyclable, so after you tire of that jacket or pair of shoes, the plastic will find yet another use.

It's also soft and feels much like a cotton/polyester blend. "The recycled PET plastic T-shirt that I have," the Society of Plastics Engineers spokesman says, "feels like all my other T-shirts -- I can't tell the difference."

-- News USA

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(NAPS)--Did you know. . . Plastic comes from nature? It is a by-product of petroleum. There are about 50 different varieties of plastic.

The experts at the Society of Plastics Engineers point out that plastic bottles and other packages help preserve our food.

In the U.S., plastics account for only three percent of our energy consumption? Plastic bottles gain popularity over heavier packaging because plastics require less energy to convert from raw material and their light weight saves fuel costs required to transport products.

The history of plastic goes back more than 100 years? The first plastic, actually cellulose nitrate, was introduced as a replacement for ivory in billiard balls.

What distinguishes plastic from other materials is its seemingly endless ability to be molded, shaped, modified or diversified to meet society's demands? For food packaging, this may mean keeping moisture out, carbonation in, or withstanding high temperatures. Virtually all plastic bottles resist breakage, which means fewer losses during shipment and lower prices for consumers.

The use of plastic bottles reduces waste? Americans have the best food delivery system in the world, waste less food than most other industrialized nations, and spend a smaller portion of their incomes at the grocery store.

-- North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.

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(NAPS)--Almost 100 years after Charles Goodyear’s accidental discovery of vulcanized rubber revolutionized that industry, the science of plastics benefited from a similarly unexpected turn of events.

Working in a laboratory in New Jersey, Dr. Roy J. Plunkett was experimenting with gases relating to refrigerants when he checked up on a frozen, compressed sample of a polymer called tetrafluoroethylene. The substance had formed into a white, waxy solid.

The new polymer, polytetrafluoroethylene, was discovered to be inert to virtually all chemicals, giving it extremely slippery properties. Seven years later, Plunkett and DuPont received a trademark and dubbed the material Teflon.

Today the "world’s most slipper substance" is used to insulate data communications cables, to lubricate the stainless-steel skeleton of a Statue of Liberty, to coat millions of non-stick pans and for thousands of other applications.

In 1988, the Society of Plastics Engineers honored Dr. Plunkett for his scientific contribution in the area of plastics, presenting him with the John W. Hyatt Award, named for the inventor considered to be the father of the U.S. plastics industry.

For more information on Teflon, visit the Web site at www.dupont.com/teflon

-- North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.

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