The Internet is full of weird and wonderful videos, but alongside a 415ft basketball shot and the world record 543,210 domino topple, is the sight of a watermelon hitting the tarmac after a 43m (148ft) fall without breaking.
Thanks to a polymer coating called LINE-X, the watermelon simply bounced. The test team then failed to break open the melon with an axe, before finally cracking the fruit open with an angle grinder.
With over 800,000 views in less than a week, you can see the strange power of polymer coatings on YouTube here.
While the Internet is raging about this new discovery, it is taking wiser minds inside the polymer and coating industries to highlight the fact that the protective spray has been on the market for over a decade. So the question is; why isn’t the chemical industry doing more to promote the amazing science and material advances that it is making?
With Polymer Coatings like this; Why Wait for YouTube Watermelons?
Some pop-science YouTubers are making headway. For example, the YouTube channel Veritasium has almost 4 million subscribers. Its host, Derek Muller, is no fool for science, having earned his PhD from the University of Sydney, and he uses his knowledge to good effect, by adding science to the fun, or maybe fun to the science. Either way, his latest clip gives some explanation to the fascination of the unbreakable watermelon, describing the coating as, a mix of, “Diphenylmethane-4,4’-diisocyanate (or MDI for short) and a plasticizer, namely alpha-(2-aminomethylethyl)-omega-(2-aminomethylethoxy)-poly(oxy(methyl-1,2-ethanediyl)); a long name for a long chain molecule, which in reality would have an even longer name than this.”
Another popular science website is called Futurism. Its covers many different fields, but its Industrial Rev 2.0 page is highly recommended, focusing as it does on real world applications for material science. For example, on the watermelon polymer coating story, it adds that, “Tests conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers (USACE) in 2006 showed that LINE-X-protected buildings could withstand up to 1,100 pounds of explosives. The inner walls of the Pentagon are already lined with the material to help it withstand attacks from terrorists or other threats, but civilian structures of the future could potentially use it to help combat the effects of natural disasters like hurricane or earthquakes.”
Interesting, real world information on modern industrial chemical applications with a positive impact; now there’s a thought!
Instead, so much news on chemical products refers to the potential damage they may or may not cause. Such as the website of the Environmental Working Group, that argues of the health risks of the watermelon coating’s perfluorochemicals.
Possibly any chemical product named alpha-(2-aminomethylethyl)-omega-(2-aminomethylethoxy)-poly(oxy(methyl-1,2-ethanediyl)) will cause issues.
Maybe this is the heart of the problem. For 500 years, the scientific world has attempted to keep its industry elitist, with its use of Latin and its closed communities, such as the Royal Academy.
Should the Modern Chemical Industry be More ‘Out There’ with What it can Do?
Chemical industry insiders already know what a $3 trillion industry can achieve. It is an industry that helped build drivable 3D printed cars, helped put mankind into space and can save the world from climate change. So surely swaying public opinion would be easy. After all, the beverage industry persuaded as to pay for bottled water.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year of the cuts that some of the larger multi-nationals chemical companies were making in their advertising budgets. Stating that, “Procter & Gamble Co. is preparing to make deep cuts in the number of advertising agencies it works with, hoping to save up to half-a-billion dollars in [advertising] fees. [While] Unilever, which spent roughly $7 billion on advertising and marketing last year, is currently reviewing its global media-buying business.”
If a chemical supplier has $7 billion to spend on helping consumers choose a brand that is likely similar to other brands, then think how effective it could be at broadcasting a positive message about the chemical industry with all the good that it does.
Now that we are in the age of the Internet, isn’t it time we that began to invest more in dismantling the fear around chemistry and the chemical industry? After all, it didn’t take more than a sack full of watermelon’s to show the power of the polymer coating industry.