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January 17, 2020 07:00 am

'Frankenstein' Material Can Self-Heal, Reproduce

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Researchers have now created a form of concrete that not only comes from living creatures but -- given the right inputs -- can turn one brick into two, two into four, and four into eight. [...] For this project, Wil Srubar, a materials scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his colleagues wanted to engineer life into a bulk structural material. To do so, they turned to a hearty photosynthetic cyanobacterial species in the genus Synechococcus. They mixed the cyanobacterium with sand and a hydrogel that helped retain water and nutrients. The mix provided structural support to the bacteria, which -- as they grey -- lay down calcium carbonate, similar to the way some ocean creatures create shells. When dried, the resulting material was as strong as cement-based mortar. "It looks like a Frankenstein-type material," Srubar says. "That's exactly what we're trying to create, something that stays alive." Under the right conditions, which included relatively high humidity, Srubar's living material not only survived but reproduced. After the researchers split the original brick in half and added extra sand, hydrogel, and nutrients, the cyanobacteria grew in 6 hours into two full-size bricks; after three generations (in which the researchers again split the bricks), they had eight bricks, they report today in Matter.

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