Fake_William_Shatner t1_iu6vqn3 wrote on October 29, 2022 at 12:27 AM

Reply to comment by Herzyr in University of Chicago scientists discover material that can be made like a plastic but conducts like metal by VeterinarianProper42

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 on October 29, 2022 at 12:51 AM

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..