This is actually pretty cool:
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.
Graphene vibes
What do you mean? Graphene is amazing at everything but one.
The one is getting out of the lab , but still…
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.
One step closer to Mithril
Great. Now WB has to rebrand Superman to „Man of Material four times Stronger than Steel“.
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”
That only works in the Lab….
The first step of every new invention…
Is also the last step for 90% of them
Welcome to the scientific process
I was looking for mention of the size of the piece they made, given that the material is a nano structure. No mention of it that I saw.
Probably not even visible to the eye.
Show me a sword 🗡️
Sword or no award!
How does this compare to carbon fiber?
Depends. Are you building a sub?
Damn, beat me to it
Yeah I had a sinking feeling it was only lab based at this stage
That is crushing news.
The hype is gonna die down
That was my first though too.
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.
And how renewable is this new glass-coated DNA material? Iron scores pretty high on that one too.
Isn’t beryllium pretty brittle, though? Beryllium poisoning happens due to airborne particles, I thought it almost… crumbled? I guess?
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.
Materials science is still chugging along, I think there are more metals to discover.
We at the space elevator tier material yet? Need to get that bad boy constructed asap
