Dr. Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist, was busily researching adhesives in the laboratory. In the process, he discovered something peculiar: an adhesive that stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them.

"It was part of my job as a researcher to develop new adhesives, and



At that time we wanted to develop bigger, stronger, tougher adhesives,"

said Silver."This was none of those."

What Silver discovered was something called microspheres which retain their stickiness but with a "removability characteristic," allowing attached surfaces to peel apart easily.