Will "Elastic" Water Replace Plastic For Future Space Settlements?

Thanks to the billions of dead things crushed in liquified form (aka oil), humans are able to create an environmentally unfriendly (but useful) material called plastic.

Unfortunately for future space settlers, plastic will not be an easy material to replace in space without heavily importing it from our Earthen homeworld.

However a new material made out of 95% water may help space settelers replace plastic with a more environmentally alternative.

(Nature.com) Here we report that water and clay (2–3 per cent by mass), when mixed with a very small proportion (<0.4 per cent by mass) of organic components, quickly form a transparent hydrogel. This material can be moulded into shape-persistent, free-standing objects owing to its exceptionally great mechanical strength, and rapidly and completely self-heals when damaged. Furthermore, it preserves biologically active proteins for catalysis.

Although scientists would have to find suitable clay for each world (as the soil on Earth would be drastically different than Callisto or Mars), this “elastic water” could make it easier for humanity to live else where.

(Hat Tip and Image Credit via Kirai)

– Posted from my iPhone

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