35 points

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.

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6 points

Graphene vibes

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4 points

What do you mean? Graphene is amazing at everything but one.
The one is getting out of the lab , but still…

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3 points

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.

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19 points

One step closer to Mithril

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8 points

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.

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1 point

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”

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8 points

Great. Now WB has to rebrand Superman to „Man of Material four times Stronger than Steel“.

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7 points

That only works in the Lab….

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10 points

The first step of every new invention…

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14 points

Is also the last step for 90% of them

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6 points

Welcome to the scientific process

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7 points

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.

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