ST. JOHN’S — A scientist has determined that the strange white blobs puzzling Newfoundland beachcombers are made of a plastic commonly found in adhesives, but the origin of the mysterious goo is still unknown.

Hilary Corlett, an Earth sciences specialist at Memorial University, collected several of the sticky globs from a beach in Arnold’s Cove, N.L., last month and gave them to a colleague for testing. The results, she said, came in late last week: it was polyvinyl acetate, often found in glue.