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Hydrogels are already used in clinical practice for the delivery of drugs, and as lenses, bone cement, wound dressings, 3D scaffolds in tissue engineering and other applications. However, bonding different hydrogel polymers to one another has remained a challenge; yet it could enable numerous new applications. Now, researchers have pioneered a new method that uses a thin film of chitosan, a fibrous sugar-based material derived from the processed outer skeletons of shellfish, to make different hydrogels instantaneously and strongly stick to each other. They used their approach to locally protect and cool tissues, seal vascular injuries, and prevent unwanted ‘surgical adhesions’ of internal body surfaces.