New Gel Protects Eggs and May Lead to Better Sports Helmets

Humpty Dumpty is famous in nursery rhymes for falling off a wall and not being able to be put back together again. But if he’d worn a protective jacket made of gelatin and cornstarch, he could have stayed intact. Researchers in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces report that by adding starch to gelatin, they have created gels that protect fragile objects — and maybe someday, people’s heads.