When a child mixes white school glue with liquid starch, the long polyvinyl acetate chains in the glue tangle around borate ions from the starch and form a stretchy net — the same cross-linking chemistry that makes slime peel off a table in one rubbery sheet instead of a sticky smear.

White school glue and liquid starch meet on a kitchen table and a puddle becomes a net — the reversible borate cross-linking chemistry behind why slime peels off in one sheet. The post When a child mixes white school glue with liquid starch, the long polyviny…