It鈥檚 squelchy, sloppy, gooey and gloopy鈥攁nd where would we be without
it? Thick and sticky or thin and runny, slime helps the world go round.
If you don鈥檛 believe it, take a look outside. Slugs and snails glide around
your garden on it鈥攂ut it means more to molluscs than a smooth ride over
rough terrain. They use it to trap prey, attract mates and grow their own food.
Even underwater, slime can make the difference between
life and death鈥攆or the hagfish at least.
When it comes to using slime, we humans are just as inventive. We create
slippery shampoos, goo-coated sticking plasters鈥攅ven those plastic bags
you pack your groceries in are made from solidified slime. With a clever bit of
chemistry, there isn鈥檛 much that goo can鈥檛 do.
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And did you know that slime once ruled the Earth? Look closely at our
planet鈥檚 rocks and you鈥檒l find traces of the vast, slimy mats that coated the
Earth billions of years ago or spot mysterious fossilised slime trails.
You could even try making your own. Dissolve five teaspoons of borax in a cup
of water. Half fill a second cup with white PVA glue, add two teaspoons of the
borax solution and begin stirring. Immediately the PVA begins to thicken (you
can even add a dash of green food colour for effect). Keep stirring, and add
more borax solution, a teaspoon at a time, until the slime gets good and thick;
you shouldn鈥檛 need more than six or seven teaspoons of borax solution in total.
Finally wash the slime under running water until the excess glue is gone and
what鈥檚 left is no longer sticky to touch. Now you can bounce it, stretch it,
squidge it through your fingers or just watch it ooze away. Wonderful stuff this
slime, isn鈥檛 it?
