27 min listen
Self-Healing Materials
FromDiscovery
ratings:
Length:
27 minutes
Released:
Dec 9, 2013
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Quentin Cooper takes a look at the new materials that can mend themselves. Researchers are currently developing bacteria in concrete which, once awakened, excrete lime to fill any cracks. In South America you can choose a car paint that heals its own scratches. And there are even gold atoms which can migrate to mend tiny breaks in jet turbine blades.
Engineers normally design things so the likelihood of breaking is minimised. But by embracing the inevitability of breakage, a new class of materials which can mend cracks and fissures before you can see them may extend the lives of our cars, engines, buildings and aeroplanes far beyond current capability.
(Image: Presenter, Quentin Cooper, BBC Copyright)
Engineers normally design things so the likelihood of breaking is minimised. But by embracing the inevitability of breakage, a new class of materials which can mend cracks and fissures before you can see them may extend the lives of our cars, engines, buildings and aeroplanes far beyond current capability.
(Image: Presenter, Quentin Cooper, BBC Copyright)
Released:
Dec 9, 2013
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Episode 5 - Morten Kringelbach: A second series of public events on the role of science in society, from the BBC World Service with the Wellcome Collection. by Discovery