**1.1 Smart adhesives: evolution**

As adhesive innovations continue to advance industries can exploit attributes of discrete material discoveries, hybrids and applications in order to create new engineered materials, composites, layers and coatings to strive toward adhesive compounds that are so amazing they appear to be "smart" [1]. It is important to note that these advancements, enhancements and innovations will simply represent the 'State of the Art' for a moment in time. We live in an exciting time as advancements are occurring at exponential rates which are bringing many opportunities for rapid innovation through cross-industry solutions. This means that science and technology are rapidly reaching intersections that allow applications to be realized as scalable solutions in size and ease of deployment. Scale can be thought of as macro-, micro- and nano-scaled. Macro may be a component that you hold in your hand such as a washer, gasket or o-ring. Micro may be a mixture of components that are apparent to the naked eye and Nano may be a molecular array, bonding, layering or complementary mating that is smaller than can be seen but can be quite powerful in application value.
