• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Scientists Have Developed a Way to Make Wood as Strong as Steel

Ether_Snake

Ether_Snake

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
11,306
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-super-wood-stronger-than-steel

Scientists have developed a new type of "super wood" that is more than 10 times stronger and tougher than normal wood - and this innovation could potentially become a natural and inexpensive substitute for steel and other materials.

Key to the new wood's superpowers is a special chemical treatment followed by a heated compression process. The resulting chemical bonds make the wood strong enough to one day be used in buildings and vehicles.

It could even take a turn in new armour plating – the researchers fired bullet-like projectiles at their new super wood and found they got lodged in the material rather than blasting their way through, as they did with standard-strength wood.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

More details at the link.

Would be interesting to know if the density is well preserved over time. Would be neat if it could replace the use of metals in every day products.

Also a video of a bullet going through natural wood and their densified wood
 
Beartruck

Beartruck

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,939
Teh Hamburglar said:
I've got super wood.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
23890.jpg
 
phisheep

phisheep

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,760
"... to one day be used in buildings and vehicles"

Wasn't that day about 4,000 years ago?
 
Beartruck

Beartruck

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,939
Real talk though, something with the pliability and weight of wood with the strength of steel would be an engineering revolution.
 
Greysif

Greysif

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,726
Watch out Thanos, Disney already found a replacement for RDJ and it won't cost them a penny.

latest
 
Rivi

Rivi

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
829
I thought people were crying about wasting too much paper and all the dead trees how the hell does this help?
 
wenis

wenis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,111
So kids desks would actually be bullet proof for school shootings. The GOP gets what they want once again.
 
Mivey

Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,826
Rivi said:
I thought people were crying about wasting too much paper and all the dead trees how the hell does this help?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This creates an entirely new market for wood. So you ... plant more trees. It's not a complex issue. The thing people cry about is cutting down rain forests which cannot be simply replanted, not unless you are willing to wait hundreds of years.
 
Cuburger

Cuburger

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,975
I wonder if the process will also make wood resistant to termites. Also I wonder if the properties of wood like rot would play a factor or if treating it could eliminate stuff like that.
 
OP
OP
Ether_Snake

Ether_Snake

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
11,306
Cuburger said:
I wonder if the process will also make wood resistant to termites. Also I wonder if the properties of wood like rot would play a factor or if treating it could eliminate stuff like that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I assume that the increased density makes it more difficult to burn actually, so it would likely also have similar advantages against rotting. There's less room for air and water to seep into.

SpecX said:
Interesting, but wouldn't this burn as easily as regular wood?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If the wood is denser, then there's less oxygen inside it so I presume it wouldn't burn as easily.
 
AnansiThePersona

AnansiThePersona

Started a revolution but the mic was unplugged
Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,682
Titanium: "What's he doing?!?"

Wood: "And this..........THIS IS TO GO EVEN FUTHER BEYOND!!!!!"
 
Akira86

Akira86

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,589
Does this mean they will create huge commercial forests to harvest instead of just chopping down old grown and then developing on it?

also i'm choosing to interpret the video as a robot erection test with super densified wood finally succeeding.
robot #1's penis sailing away has me in tears rn.
 

ISOM

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,684
Uh, wood is a finite resource isn't it? Does that really solve any future resource issue?
 

Mister Saturn

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
308
I seem to recall reading some futurist speculation (no doubt extrapolated from sci-fi authors) of these "super wood" materials eventually being used in he construction of modern spacecraft. I find it pretty fascinating to think on, though I don't doubt that once large-scale asteroid mining is cost-effective, moving back to modern metals would be the better option.
 
Briarios

Briarios

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,238
ISOM said:
Uh, wood is a finite resource isn't it? Does that really solve any future resource issue?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

... Huh?

You can farm trees, it's renewable, not finite. Sure, you don't want to cut down old growth forests or rain forests, but farming trees it's a good thing - pulls carbon out of the atmosphere and is way better than mining for metal.
 
Xiaomi

Xiaomi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,237
If they can make a densified wood that's stronger and lighter than a similar volume of aluminum, I'm gonna build my next pc out of it. That sounds baller as fuck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.