Iron Man-inspired material made from DNA and glass is 5x stronger than steel — and 4x lighter

Technology@lemmy.world – 141 points – 9 months ago

Iron Man-inspired material made from DNA and glass is 5x stronger than steel — and 4x lighter::Regular glass is brittle and fragile. But pure glass coated on DNA is a different beast entirely.

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I guess I don’t understand all the negativity in this thread

It’s because people have been seeing the same headline for decades, and 99% of the time it leads to nothing useful. Also, the headline is over-selling it by comparing it to fictional miracle materials.

Ok, you're probably bored with this conversation, so don't take this personally, but I'm going to double down. Check this summary of composite history in aircraft.

One of the first high-performance composite materials (for primary structures) was introduced in the 1980s on the 737 horizontal stabilizer and underwent extensive testing and in-flight evaluations. In the mid 1990s, composite vertical and horizontal stabilizers for the 777 were designed, developed, and implemented into production, reaping the benefits of lightweight structures and improved aircraft performance

It took 30-40 years from first industrial use to ubiquity, that's not counting the time between research success to first industrial use. If you see things move from lab to everyday use within your lifetime that's more or less expected rate of progress.

And the scientists involved were inspired by the movie, that's not hype, is just how people are motivated to make these first steps when they know they may not even live to see the real world outcomes.

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