The gloopy slime of the hagfish is inspiring an unusual non-lethal weapon AB Forces News Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Kids aren’t the only ones who love slime. The US Navy wants to take the gloopy hobby to the next level – by making super-expanding weaponised slime that can trap boats in the water.

Currently, the US Navy stops boats – particularly suspected smugglers – by using a pneumatic launcher that fires a plastic rope designed to get tangled up in the boat’s propeller.

But it is not very environmentally-friendly and is hard to disentangle once fired. Instead, a synthetic version of …