MESOAMERICANS WERE THE FIRST POLYMER SCIENTISTS

Ancient Mesoamerican peoples manufactured rubber from latex some 3,500 years before the modern invention of vulcanization and even compounded it for different applications, says new research from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team. Flourishing from at least 2,000 B.C. to the Spanish invasion in 1521 in what is now parts of Mexico and Central America, the Mesoamerican civilization engineered the properties of latex from the native Castilla elastica tree. A sticky liquid that dries to a brittle solid, natural latex, which contains an oily chemical called isoprene, was mixed with juice from the morning glory species Ipomoea alba.


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