Self-mending plastic in the pipeline

Scientists have created a new form of plastic that can self-heal without the need for glue, meaning that broken toys could become a concept of the past.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Graham Armstrong, corporate director of research, development and innovation at AkzoNobel, the organisation behind the research, explained that the material called supramolecular polymer could bond back together without glue simply by holding it together.

He added that as well as toys, the new plastic could be used in car chassis to make repair work less expensive.

"They use supramolecular chemistry, which exploits some of the lessons we have learned from the way proteins bind together in biology. It means we can have solids that genuinely can heal," he told the newspaper.

The discovery comes just days after scientists from Tel-Aviv University's Superconductivity Group created a real-life hover board using a superconductor and magnets.