I always find it weird when they say stuff like something is 5 times lighter than something else. Or it’s 10 times cheaper than something else. It seems better to say scientists have invented a new material that weighs 1/5 as much as steel.
Yeah. You can’t x by a positive number and end up with a product that’s smaller than x. It’s literally incorrect, even though they obviously mean it’s one fifth rather than “five times”
The colleagues reported in Cell Reports Physical Science that by building a structure out of DNA and then coating it with glass, they have created a very strong material with very low density.
They use self-assembling DNA to build a lattice, which is then doped with microscopic glass. It's kind of like reinforced concrete but at the molecular scale. Scaling it up will be the hard part but the technique is pretty innovative.
I saw a YouTube video a while ago about 3d printing structures with organic filaments. Now self replicating DNA composites… it’s interesting and a bit unsettling to think of a future where buildings may be literally alive.
Also, I understand why they just talk about “strength”, but it would be nice to have some real idea of which properties they really mean. Is it harder? Does it resist impact better? Does it resist lateral torsion better? Steels cover a wide range and almost always involve tradeoffs.
Yeah it’s kind of insane what a miracle material steel is. Especially for how long ago it has been discovered and we still haven’t found another material that is better in every way, like how steel replaced iron or brass or copper. The balance of all the material properties for its weight/volume and its manufacturability and price is just unbeatable.
For scifi purposes,I tried to find another material that could beat it if cost wasn’t an issue and I couldn’t. Closest ones I could find that aren’t already obiquitous in popular consciouness like titanium, aluminium, tungsten carbide etc. are Molybdenum and Beryllium. But yeah, they don’t exactly beat steel either.
yeah meanwhile iron is literally nescessary to make your blood transport oxygen. Mo and Be (and their alloys) just have similar strength to weight ratios, but they aren’t exactly practical drop in replacements. So yeah, I haven’t found anything better than steel, there’s just materials that are better in one or two aspects, but nothing with the versatility of steel. To be fair, we have thousands of years of research into steel, perhaps we can still find something better. Idk, maybe some high entropy alloy.
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