Every heard of plywood? It’s really just wood and glue. And most glue is made out of ~oil~; smelly, bad for the environment, and worst of all, a one syllable unscientific word. Multisyllabed bio-based adhesives still smell kind of bad, however, are better for the environment, and are potentially biodegradable. Meaning all of those wood composites like plywood, glulam, and that weird dark brown not-quite-wood stuff that’s always hanging around the laser cutter, all become renewable and much better for the environment without having to change how we make them. Developing an adhesive involves a lot of making glue on little strips of wood and then ripping them apart in an instron, then using computers to make models of how the strips got ripped apart. If making glue, tearing things apart, or computers sound fun to you, get in touch!