Engineers at the US Colorado University have developed a new method to make sustainable construction materials partially composed of living cells.
"We already use biological materials in our buildings, like wood, but those materials are no longer alive. So, we're asking: Why can't we keep them alive and have that biology do something beneficial, too?" said a researcher at the Department of Civil Engineering.
The scientists believe that their ability to keep their bacteria alive with a high success rate shows that living buildings might not be too far off in the future, the German News Agency reported.
The Science Daily website cited the researchers as saying: "Such structures could, one day, heal their own cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command".
In their experiments, the researchers used green microbes called "cyanobacteria", which absorb carbon dioxide gas to help them grow and make calcium carbonate -- the main ingredient in limestone and then, turns it into cement.
The new method relies on transforming cyanobacteria into a solution of sand and gelatin. Then, the calcium carbonate churned out by the microbes mineralizes the gelatin which binds together the sand and turns it into a brick. The researchers also discovered that they could make their material reproduce.
Chop one of these bricks in half, and each of half is capable of growing into a new brick. According to the group's calculations, roughly 9-14% of the bacterial colonies in their materials were still alive after 30 days and three different generations in brick form.
