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Technology

US Navy wants to fire a slime cannon at boats to stop them escaping

By David Hambling

8 August 2018

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The gloopy slime of the hagfish is inspiring an unusual non-lethal weapon

AB Forces News Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Kids aren’t the only ones who love slime. The US Navy wants to take the gloopy hobby to the next level – by making super-expanding weaponised slime that can trap boats in the water.

Currently, the US Navy stops boats – particularly suspected smugglers – by using a pneumatic launcher that fires a plastic rope designed to get tangled up in the boat’s propeller.

But it is not very environmentally-friendly and is hard to disentangle once fired. Instead, a synthetic version of…

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