Comments
Fake_William_Shatner t1_iu6vqn3 wrote
I’d say bioengineered bacteria fed along sheets of plastic would be a good way to create large swaths of cheap, conductive surfaces for buildings and roads. We need something useful to do with all the plastic we can’t recycle.
Herzyr t1_iu6ysyg wrote
Oh yes, that would be a lovely repurpose for plastic, I'm not sure if we have bred bacteria for this purpose but I think they have already engineered worms to eat plastic, so the bottleneck so far is a issue of scale and cost it seems.
I'd love to see this for roads but I don't think it would stand for the stress involving vehicles, maybe something for more like electronics and maybe military stuff? Both industries love to shave weight off stuff, while still being able to do their jobs with reasonable durability..
Debbie_snack t1_iu7o7ny wrote
> Research funded by the army
You mean by the taxpayers
The army doesn't fund shit.
nhombrenovalido t1_iu6qa1d wrote
Solar powered smart roadways that charge your electric vehicle as you drive on it. It’s all coming together, we have all the required technology we just need a financially backed entity that values altruism over profit. It’s not impossible just nigh improbable
FloodMoose t1_iu6ulxz wrote
Or maybe just 1/1000th of a yearly US military budget line item? US infrastructure needs a significant revamp.
BallardRex t1_iu7ahti wrote
The US military budget is about $800bn, and I’m pretty sure that you don’t really believe that much can be done in terms of infrastructure for 1/1000th of that, never mind a single line item.
FloodMoose t1_iu8is30 wrote
Correct I was being facetious. It would require more money than the specific example I gave.
nhombrenovalido t1_iu6vhiw wrote
You’re absolutely right, I avoided the topic because federal budgets never please everyone but you nailed how easy it could be.
[deleted] t1_iu7fn8o wrote
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Herzyr t1_iu6s541 wrote
Research funded by the army, this has a good chance that it will pop up for civilian use eventually.
So in theory they use nickel molecules to act as a conduit since it has good conductivity, so they have to tweak the composition to make it work, maybe layer it like synthetic materials like G10 and micarta?