Rubber is an indispensable material whose unique, self-reinforcing properties make it vital for everything from car tires to life-saving medical devices. However, nearly all of the world’s natural rubber comes from a single tree species grown in a vulnerable monoculture. A devastating blight that wiped out past plantations threatens to do so again, posing a critical risk to global transportation and stability.
- airplane tires
- Brazilian rubber tree
- carbon black
- Charles Goodyear
- chemistry of rubber
- cross-linking
- elasticity
- Fordlandia
- Goodyear Tire Company
- Guayule
- Hevea brasiliensis
- history of rubber
- latex
- latex allergy
- material engineering
- material science
- monoculture
- national security
- natural rubber
- nitrile gloves
- polymer
- rubber
- South American leaf blight
- strain crystallization
- supply chain
- synthetic rubber
- tires
- veritasium
- vulcanization
- youtube
