In a new study from Princeton University, scientists turned toward the humble oyster and its iridescent composite material nacre for design inspiration.
Matching the characteristics of nacre at the microscopic level, the researchers were able to increase the toughness of cement some 17 times, as compared to a cement block on its own.
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Unfortunately, being capitalist dystopia, this won't make buildings safer. It will see them being made with less material.
Eh, that's just good engineering and resource usage (assuming it's not magically energy intensive). Anyone can build a bridge to not fail; it takes an engineer to make a bridge that barely doesn't fail.
But upping safety factors by 2 would still use less concrete than previous structures.
So could be an improvement to safety and cost.
Best case, the world uses less concrete (which I believe is a huge source of CO2)
"Stronger and safer cement wouldn’t just be a boon for construction, but also the health of the planet, as the production of cement makes up roughly 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions."
Yes, I didn't read the article.
Having now read it, I was a bit concerned that they were going to be harvesting mother of pearl in some horrendous twist of "we can use less concrete! But we have to industrialise the harvesting of molluscs".
Thankfully it's the micro-pattern in polymers inspired by nature.
Wasn't this the same natural glue the Chinese used for their latest bone2lock (?) bone cement ?
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