Researchers announced Monday that they have invented a new "self-healing" material that quickly rebuilds itself when cracked, a development that they believe could be used to create artificial body tissues. The material is called a self-adaptive composite (SAC) by inventors and consists of a matrix of miniscule rubber-like balls. When broken, the material heals rapidly as the micron-sized balls reconnect to each other. The material also bounces back to its original shape when compressed, like a spong

The researchers from Rice University in Texas published the details of the invention in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, which is published by the American Chemical Society. The United States Air Force and the U.S. Department of Defense provided some funding for the research as well. "The sample doesn't give you the impression that it contains any liquid," lead study author Jun Lou said in a statement. "That's very different from a gel. This is not really squishy; it's more like a sugar cube that you can compress quite a lot. The nice thing is that it recovers." Importantly, the size of the material is limited only by the size of the container it is created in.