HN Explorer

Ask HN: Are there any basic material breakthroughs that impacts construction?

1 points by newyankee ↗ HN
I have searched for this topic a lot but never been able to find concrete evidence. Has there been fundamental breakthroughs in material science coupled with the ability to scale the applications in production that will see the day of light in the next decade or 2.

Examples:

1. Strong materials that can improve strength or reduce weight 10x or more and can help us build new cities from ground up. 2. Materials that can literally be synthesized from other relatively cheap and abundant raw materials and lower in cost than compared super materials.

There was so much promise around Carbon nanotubes/ graphene etc. more than a decade back but to my layman's eyes it does not look there has been much impact in areas mentioned here.

Having said that do the laws of physics limit us from making such materials. Will we ever see tall buildings with connected bridges and expressways floating in air before 2050 ?

2 comments

[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 28.9 ms ] thread
pocketstar
There are breakthroughs in material science everyday. The biggest break through happened recently by henry bessemer in the 1800's, called the bessemer process.

Steel and concrete will not be replaced anytime soon, with steels infinite fatigue life combined with concrete creating a tensegrity structure. It is the perfect combination for large, cheap and long life structures. I don't see a need for new materials to build "cities of the future" I think glass, steel and concrete are sufficient.

Breakthrough with 10-1000x reduction in specific density I'd keep an eye out for in the next decade are metal-air batteries.

Pick up a book on material science, learn the laws of physics.

Do the Math. Build the robot. Save the world.