Rubber in Mesoamerica
Even though processed rubber is widely believed to have originated in 19th-century Europe, an MIT research team that includes an undergraduate has demonstrated that by 1600 BC, an ancient civilization was processing latex to produce rubber. The researchers -- Professor Dorothy Hosler, Assistant Professor Sandra Burkett and Michael Tarkanian, now a senior in materials science and engineering -- published their findings in a report, "Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica," in the June 18 issue of Science. The researchers' most significant finding is that the Mesoamerican civilization, which flourished from at least 2000 BC to the Spanish invasion in 1521 in what is now parts of Mexico and Central America, engineered the properties of latex from the native Castilla elastica tree. These ancient people enhanced the elasticity of this otherwise brittle material by mixing it with juice from the morning glory species Ipomoea alba. The Mesoamerican p...