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Gunk
Gunk is a variety of residue that generally appears in places where something yucky has taken place. A subcategory of the icky things genre, humans will usually try to scrub away gunk when it builds up enough to irritate them. Although nearly all organic beings produce gunk of some kind; inorganic substances have been known to produce gunk as well, such as mineral deposits caused by running water or patches of metal that have oxidized. By this definition, it is worth noting that the planet Mars has a high surface density of gunk, despite not playing host to any organic beings that we know of.
Gunk is not to be confused with filth, which tends to describe debris that is deposited onto a surface, rather than produced by it or as a result of contact with it. Think of it as the difference between the cheese that melts on top of a frying pan as you grill a sandwich as opposed to the crumbs that fall onto the plate when you eat said sandwich. This tends to cause gunk to be much more difficult to remove from afflicted surfaces compared to filth, as it has a tight adhesive bond to its host.
Its status as a member of the icky things family does not bar it from being used in widely accepted goods and products. Many of the most well-known of these products are derived from petroleum, an organic substance also known as "crude oil". Wax, a textbook example of gunk, is best known for its uses in candles, art, and hair removal. Wax is sourced by a great many things, but the most viable commercial variety is paraffin wax (derived from petroleum). Rubber has seen industrial applications from toys to spacecraft, despite being little more than a moderately firm oily gunk. Perhaps one of the most widespread and advanced evolutions of gunk is plastic, a hard material that is another byproduct of the excessively gunky resource of oil. Plastic has become so ubiquitous to humans that a not insignificant amount of microplastics can be found just floating around in our bodies. Saps and syrups are a type of sugary substance created via excretion from trees. Natural gums are produced the same way.
Gunk will forever plague places such as stovetops, ovens, microwaves, sinks, toilets, showers, ear canals, nostrils, that little spot between your eyes and your nose, cookware, pipes, and automobiles, and the effort to dispatch it will always rise to the occasion as its equal. Such is the human condition.