103
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
103 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
59430 readers
2516 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
This is a nothing burger.
I feel ya. People have been promising spider-silk as a building material for the last 30 years.
However, we also started making heavy use of plastics back in the 70s, and that's definitely been a revolutionary material in practically every industrial field.
And boy, do I wish plastic didn't take off like that. Every new finding about how many particles slough off, and get breathed in or ingested, it makes me wish we were still using metal, wood, and glass, for packaging.
In reference to the article, I think the number one consideration is scalability of production. Producing a new material in laboratory to the tune of a few grams is a far cry from using the same process to produce tons of usable product in a factory.
Here's hoping that they can move this into an industrial process quick so we can see some benefits.
I mean... maybe? There are a host of environmental costs to those as well. Certainly, the nice thing about plastic is that its cheap to mold where as metal and wood and glass take a lot more energy to manipulate. The problem is that its too cheap, and so it gets used far in excess of its long term utility.
Sure. Which is why I'm not holding my breath. But new materials can be useful even if they aren't cheap.
I feel like I've seen this title many times over the years.
Along with cancer cures and better batteries.
Keep in mind that it takes a lot of time to move things like this from discovery to practical applications. Testing a new material and finding that it has amazing properties is comparatively easy. Checking every possible complication and side-effect is time-consuming, but important. You don't want to start manufacturing cars using the stuff and then find out that it explodes on contact with water.