Self-healing plastics

Consider the body's power to heal itself of scrapes and cuts.When we cut ourselves, sticky cells called platelets clump together near the wound to create a plug that stops the bleeding and begins the healing.The value of the same sort of process in light polymer composites that can be used to produce things like aircraft fuselage becomes obvious. The new composite materials being developed are called self-healing plastics. They are made from hollow fibers filled with epoxy resin that is released if the fibers suffer serious stresses and cracks. This creates a 'scab' nearly as strong as the original material. Such self-healing materials could be used to make planes, cars and even spacecraft that will be lighter, more fuel efficient, and safer