Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are using the ancient Asian folk art of paper cutting, called kirigami, to make a better bandage, MIT News reports. This will be good news for anyone who has ever struggled to put a Band-Aid on a knuckle, knee, or elbow, only to have it pop off after the tiniest movement. By strategically slitting the bandage, researchers have developed a pad that can be applied to parts of the body that are "highly deformable" (that's a fancy way of saying "very bendy").
"The researchers attached the 'kirigami film' to a volunteer's knee and found that each time she bent her knee, the film's slits opened at the center, in the region of the knee with the most pronounced bending, while the slits at the edges remained closed, allowing the film to remain bonded to the skin," MIT News writes. "The kirigami cuts give the film not only stretch, but also better grip: The cuts that open release tension that would otherwise cause the entire film to peel away from the skin."
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