this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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143
Iron Man-inspired material made from DNA and glass is 5x stronger than steel — and 4x lighter (www.zmescience.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Iron Man-inspired material made from DNA and glass is 5x stronger than steel — and 4x lighter::Regular glass is brittle and fragile. But pure glass coated on DNA is a different beast entirely.

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[–] paysrenttobirds 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The real success here seems to be creating a super nano configurable lattice out of DNA that can then be coated with other things to make a composite reinforced material like super fine reinforced cement. The article I've read only mention the 5 times compressive strength for glass, but their next try will be carbon fiber, which has comparable fracture toughness to steel even without this lattice design.

I guess I don't understand all the negativity in this thread, like everything was new once and just because every breakthrough doesn't make it to Walmart by Christmas doesn't mean it's not exciting.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I guess I don’t understand all the negativity in this thread

It’s because people have been seeing the same headline for decades, and 99% of the time it leads to nothing useful. Also, the headline is over-selling it by comparing it to fictional miracle materials.

[–] paysrenttobirds 4 points 10 months ago

Ok, you're probably bored with this conversation, so don't take this personally, but I'm going to double down. Check this summary of composite history in aircraft.

One of the first high-performance composite materials (for primary structures) was introduced in the 1980s on the 737 horizontal stabilizer and underwent extensive testing and in-flight evaluations. In the mid 1990s, composite vertical and horizontal stabilizers for the 777 were designed, developed, and implemented into production, reaping the benefits of lightweight structures and improved aircraft performance

It took 30-40 years from first industrial use to ubiquity, that's not counting the time between research success to first industrial use. If you see things move from lab to everyday use within your lifetime that's more or less expected rate of progress.

And the scientists involved were inspired by the movie, that's not hype, is just how people are motivated to make these first steps when they know they may not even live to see the real world outcomes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I mean.. Also the looming climate apocalypse.