Boffins bounce with super rubber

Australian scientists have isolated the protein used by animals to create Resilin, a near perfect elastic.

Resilin is a biological high-efficiency rubber that stores and releases energy with no wastage. The team wants to use it in spinal disc implants, heart and blood valve substitutes, and perhaps even to add some extra spring to the heels of running shoes.

"Resilin has evolved over hundreds of millions of years in insects into the most efficient elastic protein known," said Dr Chris Elvin, project leader and principal scientist at CSIRO Livestock Industries. 

"Everyone knows that fleas jump like crazy and now, for the first time, we have replicated the material that enables them to do that. If humans could jump like fleas, we would be able to leap 100-story buildings."

Dr Elvin explained that the material displays a 97 per cent recovery after stress, far exceeding that of synthetic polybutadiene 'superball' high-resilience rubber.

It also performs more efficiently than Elastin, an protein in humans which accounts for the elasticity of structures such the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, intestines, tendons and ligaments.