Dossier
Adhesive
Coverage of Adhesive in the Nexus archive.
- The history of Post-it Notes: how 3M scientists and choir practice led to the little yellow paper
Post-it Notes originated from 3M scientists Spencer Silver and Art Fry, with Silver developing an adhesive and Fry using it to solve a choir practice problem. The product, first sold in 1980, now sells nearly 100 billion annually.
- Japanese rocket part came unglued, leading to mission failure
A Japanese satellite launch using the H3 rocket failed in December 2025 due to a component weakening from a temperature variation. JAXA attributed the failure to a manufacturing process that inadequately considered adhesive properties.