Humans often look up to nature to solve their real world problems, this is known as biomimetics – Latin for “imitating life”, it is obvious because natural selection and process has contributed profoundly with its very well adaptability as we walked through the process of evolution. Over the years, many a times scientists have relied upon the nature to draw inspiration in an attempt to build future cities keeping in mind the ever growing population and the goal to keep carbon emission low.
Cities today are built with metals and concrete which do not support the sustainability idea as the process of making them requires a lot of energy. Bio engineers, like Michelle Oyen from Cambridge University are looking for solutions that are environment friendly.
“We are trying to rethink the way we make things”, she said, in a press release. It is seen that engineers tend to throw energy at problems while nature throws information at problems, they do things differently, fundamentally.
It is in her lab that she is trying to construct small samples of artificial bones and egg shells which could eventually be taken to a level where it is used as building materials that are low carbon.
The contents of bone and eggshells are the reason for their hardness, stiffness and toughness which offers resistance.
Bones can break but it is very rare that they do and they also have the ability to selfheal. Also, the egg shells are tougher than we think they are. Scientists believe that a combination of these two will make stronger material. Even the process of making this material does not take much energy, as it is done in the room temperature using collagen which is the most abundant animal protein.
It still might take a few decades for us to live in houses made of bones and eggshells. The only problem that lies in this process is, getting collagen in abundance as it comes from animal sources and some other artificial collagen or synthetic collagen will be required to increase the production to the point where it could be used to make buildings. The other major hurdle is the idea of constructing buildings with entirely different materials since the prevailing construction industry uses standards designed to build with iron and concrete in mind, incorporating the use of new materials now will mean re-structuring the entire industry.
She also states that, “if you want to do something really transformative and bring down carbon emission this is what is needed.” She further adds, “If we are going to make a real change a major re-think is what is required.”
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Author: Technology and Beyond
