Some of life’s biggest mistakes lead to the best creations. One scientist found one of strongest substances at the bottom of a flask.
Chemist Jeannette García, a scientist at IBM Research, found a lot more than she bargained for when she discovered a clump of white material in a used flask. After trying to crack it with a hammer, she realized that it wasn’t budging. Naturally, she turned to her colleagues for a little bit of help. What they found out was that she had inadvertently discovered a new family of thermoset polymers.
“Thermosets account for about one third of the global polymers produced every year, but they are difficult to recycle. García’s new material, nicknamed Titan, is the first recyclable, industrial-strength thermoset ever discovered.”
García found that failure can lead to success!