As someone who loves all things fluid, it seems strange that it’s taken me until this year to wonder about stickiness and the mechanisms that control it. It seems like a trite observation, but lots of things are sticky – foods, plants, the eponymous tape. It’s been something I’ve taken for granted.
But is all stickiness the same? And are any solids truly sticky, or does the stickiness result from a sticky surface fluid?
My inspiration came as I was chopping fresh garlic. It turns out that the stickiness I felt comes from mercaptans, sometimes lovingly referred to as “thiols”. These sulphur-containing compounds are attracted to other sulphur-containing compounds such as the amino acid cysteine, which can
