Harry Coover’s failed plastic experiment accidentally birthed cyanoacrylate the superglue powering modern medicine

The “mistake” glued instantly when it met moisture traces

In the late 1940s, chemist Harry Coover and colleagues sought a clear plastic, but one cyanoacrylate compound behaved “wrong,” sticking fiercely to lab surfaces instead of forming a controllable transparent polymer. Scientists later realized the flaw was a feature: the material undergoes ultra-fast polymerization on tiny traces of moisture and surface ions, creating near-instant bonds. After shifting from plastics research to adhesive development, cyanoacrylate appeared in medicine around 1958 and grew into a widely used commercial product.