Scientists Plugging Holes in Concrete With Specially Engineered Bacteria [Bacteria]

Repairing damaged concrete often requires pouring more fresh stuff, or digging it all up and starting once again. But because of germ experts at the University of Newcastle, custom bacteria-” BackFilla” -may be the long run of adjusting .

The bacteria, once released into a damaged area, procreate and spread into the cracks-and then die. But don’t be sad-in their wake, they leave behind calcium carbonate corpses as strong as the original concrete. And don’t worry-the researchers were canny enough to design the bacteria to understand when their work is completed, so that they don’t run amuck and cover the arena in concrete:

The bacteria also includes a self-destruct gene that keeps it from wildly proliferating far from its concrete target, because a runaway patch of bacterial concrete that continued to grow despite all efforts to prevent it’d be somewhat annoying

Yes, annoying is correct-or like something out of a completely dull horror movie. [ BoingBoing ]

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This post is tagged: calcium carbonate, dull horror, horror movie, procreate, run amuck, self-destruct, university of newcastle