Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index An aglet or aiglet is the little plastic or metal cladding on the end of shoelaces that keeps the twine from unraveling. The word comes from the latin word acus which means needle. In times past, aglets were usually made of metal though some were glass or stone. Many were highly ornamental, and made of precious metals such as silver. Before the invention of buttons, they were used on the ends of ribbons to fasten clothing together. Sometimes they would be formed into small figures. Shakespeare calls this type of figure an "aglet baby" in The Taming of the Shrew. Purely decorative metal ornaments called aigullette are sometimes features of modern military dress uniforms. In biology structures called telomeres form a cap on the end of chromosomes which prevents them from fusing together. Just as shoelaces can fray if the aglet becomes damaged so too can problems occur with the chromosome if the telomeres become damaged. People with only short teleomeres appear to suffer an increased risk of smoking related cancers. [1] Also: Aglet is a paradigm for building java-based agents: "aglet" is shorthand for agent plus applet. IBM Aglet page Also: Aglet Productions, the "no- and low-budget" movie production company headed by Karl T. Hirsch and responsible for the festival favorite "Green". IMDB page for "Green" This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.