When we think of concrete, we know that it needs to be strong enough not just to help the home stay upright in intense conditions, but also survive for long.
However, now researchers have created a type of concrete that is made from living-creatures with the ability to not just self-heal but also reproduce.
Yes, all this sounds too good to be true, but apparently it is true. The new concrete is the latest inclusion in the line of engineered living materials -- also referred to as ELMs, where organisms like bacteria are added to the materials to make them proactive, allow them to sense, communicate and respond to aid better structural integrity.
For this project, however, scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder wanted to engineer life into a bulk structural material -- like concrete. They took the help of photosynthetic cyanobacteria dubbed Synechococcus. They mixed this with sand and a hydrogel that helped in water retention as well as nutrients.?
The mix resulted in delivering structural support to the bacteria while also laying down calcium carbonate as they grew -- identical to sea creatures creating hard shells on rocks. When this dried up, researchers found this was as hard and strong as cement-based mortar.
When grown under the perfect conditions -- high humidity -- the material not just self-healed and survived, but also reproduced. Scientists broke a brick in half and added some more sand, hydrogen and nutrients, and the bacteria grew in just 6 hours into two full-sized bricks. They repeated this and got eight bricks in total.
Even though it's still in its very nascent stages, the researchers wish to use this technology to help astronauts build stuff on Mars as they won¡¯t have to constantly rely on a shipment of materials and instead just grow them in a lab and use them.