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$Living, Re-healable Concrete File this under things I did not know: There are species of bacteria that will eat calcium-rich food and excrete limestone. I knew that certain plankton left coastlines full of their chalky skeletons behind when they died, but this bacterial talent is news to me. Not only is it a pretty nifty trick, but human engineers are trying to exploit it to create self-healing concrete. Long before concrete structures fail in massively destructive ways (like crumbling apart), they can be weakened by invisible micro-cracks. And it doesn’t take much space for concrete’s greatest enemy, water, to seep in. Dutch researchers are testing a “self-healing” concrete that is impregnated with dormant spores of those limestone-excreting bacteria. When water seeps in, they can come to life, ingest the hydrated calcium from their environment, and secrete concrete “glue” to repair those micro-fractures before they become mega-fractures. An amazing thought: One day our buildings and roads may be more “alive” than we ever thought possible. (via BBC News)$

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Living, Re-healable Concrete

File this under things I did not know: There are species of bacteria that will eat calcium-rich food and excrete limestone. I knew that certain plankton left coastlines full of their chalky skeletons behind when they died, but this bacterial talent is news to me. Not only is it a pretty nifty trick, but human engineers are trying to exploit it to create self-healing concrete.

Long before concrete structures fail in massively destructive ways (like crumbling apart), they can be weakened by invisible micro-cracks. And it doesn’t take much space for concrete’s greatest enemy, water, to seep in.

Dutch researchers are testing a “self-healing” concrete that is impregnated with dormant spores of those limestone-excreting bacteria. When water seeps in, they can come to life, ingest the hydrated calcium from their environment, and secrete concrete “glue” to repair those micro-fractures before they become mega-fractures.

An amazing thought: One day our buildings and roads may be more “alive” than we ever thought possible.

(via BBC News)

Source: BBC