Researchers have developed a living substance that can transform from a gooey sand mixture into a solid brick—and then help build more copies of itself. Proponents say it could be used to make a building material that requires relatively few resources and absorbs greenhouse gases instead of releasing them. When one of the bricks is halved, the bacteria can help grow those halves into two complete bricks. Instead of manufacturing bricks one by one, they could grow up to eight bricks from one and emits less carbon dioxide than traditional manufacturing methods. These findings were revealed online on January 15 in the journal Matter.
Crux of the Matter
After water, concrete is the most used material on Earth, at a rate of 3 metric tons used per year for every person in the world. Cement, the primary component of concrete, is the oldest artificial construction material, dating back to the Roman Empire
The researchers started with sand, gelatin and a kind of photosynthetic bacteria known as Synechococcus that is widespread in ocean surface waters. The gelatin retained moisture and nutrients for the bacteria to proliferate and mineralize calcium carbonate in a way that is similar to how seashells form.
Wil Srubar, Head of the Living Materials Laboratory, the University of Colorado Boulder said that “We want to blur the boundaries between the natural world and the built environment, between what is nonliving and what is living, and create a material that displays both structural and biological functions.
A challenge that scientists now face is that the material needs to get completely dried out to reach its maximum strength, but such drying stresses out the cyanobacteria. To help keep the microbes alive, the humidity surrounding the material has to be controlled.
Now researchers are seeking inspiration from more such natural processes like how colonies of coral polyps build reefs.
Self-healing concrete, for example, uses bacteria or fungi to fix its own cracks. They believe that such living materials could allow living bricks to interact with their surroundings and help people colonize Mars someday in the near future.
Curiopedia
Bacteria are a type of biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals. They were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste and the deep biosphere of the earth’s crust. Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised, and only about 27 % of the bacterial phyla have species that can be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology. Virtually all animal life on earth is dependent on bacteria for their survival as only bacteria and some archea possess the genes and enzymes necessary to synthesize vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, and provide it through the food chain. Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin that is involved in the metabolism of every cell of the human body. It is a cofactor in DNA synthesis, and in both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism. More Info
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