Self-healing polymer repairs itself when exposed to light

The applications for this sort of material are pretty incredible. Rubbery materials can often tear/degrade easily; I can't tell you how many times I've torn some soft plastic and thought to myself, "Well, that's useless now..." This material has the potential to totally change that.

Also, did anyone think of Superman when reading this story? I couldn't help but be reminded that he, too, is healed by "the power of the yellow sun".

I thought the article was going to be on an older "self-healing" plastic at first. I seem to recall hearing about it in the early 2000s, but the furthest back I can find is 2007: http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.asp...

Suffice it to say, the new polymer is much more impressive.

So in all of the scifi shows when the tech ran a light pen over the broken bits...it wasn't as laughable as I thought?