Researchers claim to make wood that is tougher than steel

[Wereweeb]

In the future we will own nothing and be happy eating bugs so we won't need wooden utensils.

Yes. Thank capitalism. People have become a nuisance in their private game of accumulating capital. Go help rebuild militant unionism instead of woeing and crying about life in the internet.

 

[Watzupken]

Renewable? Unless you can just pluck it out of the air, then it may be renewable. I am not sure how difficult it is to manufacture a steel knife, but looking at the simplified diagram of how to make this "hardened" wood, it looks like an energy intensive process. When people try to make a natural resource to do something that it can't do or not efficient in doing naturally, we are basically creating significant inefficiencies.

Truth to be told, there is nothing that man can do to try and self sustain. Everything that we create with the misconception of "sustainable" may sound good on paper, but is nowhere near being able to sustain us. Look at solar panels, they are very energy intensive to create and to maintain in a solar farm. Sure we can get power out of them, but its like using a whole bunch of power to produce solar panels and maintain the solar farms, so whatever power it produces is mostly to pay back the cost. Not to mention, solar panels if I am not mistaken are nowhere near 30% efficient in converting sunlight to power. The last I heard was sub 20% conversion rate.

 

[captaincranky]

Wood is the new cool:

I'm still amused at the amount of tech that gets batted down so often here in the comments.
It's quite impressive. I imagined people at least being open minded, but nope. Just conspiracies and wild assumptions day after day.

OK that's 38:47 of my life I\ll never get back. We pretty much already have "transparent wood:, and it's called "cellophane"

Cellophane - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

No, you can't make windows out of it, but what this kid has when he gets done screwing around, is a chunk of balsa wood , impregnated with a Plexiglas window anyway

We also have had, "sprayable wood", for decades. It's called, "nitrocellulose lacquer". Nasty stuff though, something about the massive amounts of, "VOCs", required to move it..

 

[captaincranky]

Yep. It's a crop and like all crops they want sustainability but so many still like to say" Save a tree" Like we are cutting down redwoods for toothpicks

And yet, you can still buy redwood lawn furniture. Not to mention most of California is built from it.

 

[captaincranky]

Good substitute for disposable plastic cutlery.

If you try and stay out of prison, plastic cutlery won't be forced on you. But then again, if you use metal at every lawn party, a few of your "guests", will likely steal it.

As for "stronger than steel" - stronger in what sense? Tensile strength? Compressive strength? Impact strength? Hardness? And cellulose IS a polymer.

You forgot "torsional?"..

But, (big but), cellulose is a naturally occurring organic polymer,

Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C
6H
10O
5)
n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units.[3][4] Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms.[5] Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth.

 

[Irata]

"A cheaper, renewable alternative?"

I thought we were killing the earth by using trees.


Edit: /s

You can always use fast growing plants like e.g. hemp to replace wood for some (obviously not all due to size) applications - particle boards, cellulose extraction.

Wood use requires good forest management / replanting / old growth conservation but sadly that‘s often not applied as this is a long term investment / commitment. Cut everything down and move on to the next forest is much more attractive financially for most and replacing actual forests with tree plantations is terrible from an economic perspective.

As usual, it‘s greed, ignorance and short term (profit) thinking that screws things up.

 

[captaincranky]

You can always use fast growing plants like e.g. hemp to replace wood for some (obviously not all due to size) applications - particle boards, cellulose extraction.

I know hemp makes a great guitar speaker:

CANNABIS REX™ 12

The Eminence Cannabis Rex guitar speaker lets your laid-back style come through. Clean and full, with lots of body and sparkle. Smokey smooth with high-end definition. Country, Jazz or Classical guitarists take notice.

www.eminence.com

BTW, you can use bamboo for caning various types of offenders. It's nastier, and much more economical and ecologically friendly, than chopping down a maple tree to make a paddle.

 

[fadingfool]

Excellent I can now just burn the murder weapon.......

 

[Sausagemeat]

I had to double take, I thought there was an article on how to make your wood as hard as steel on Techspot.

Fortunately I’m 34 so I still don’t need any assistance. Thanks anyway Techspot. But there are some boomers on here that could probably do with some assistance. Cue Captain Cranky..

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Yes. Thank capitalism. People have become a nuisance in their private game of accumulating capital. Go help rebuild militant unionism instead of woeing and crying about life in the internet.

How is capitalism responsible?

 

[RudyBob]

And yet, you can still buy redwood lawn furniture. Not to mention most of California is built from it.

Toothpicks I don't sit on

 

[captaincranky]

Toothpicks I don't sit on

Well, as long as they cut it down for your personal comfort, and not toothpicks, I guess that's OK.

BTW, have you priced lumber at Home Depot recently?

I mean, since we more trees now in the US, than when Columbus arrived, you wouldn't think it would be so dear. Although, if memory serves, Columbus didn't land in the continental US, I think it was the West Indies.

 

[captaincranky]

I had to double take, I thought there was an article on how to make your wood as hard as steel on Techspot.

I know what you mean. Sometimes I forget where I am when I see pictures of Jeff Bezos' rockets myself.

If you're feeling "down" sometime though, gimme a shout and I'll PM you some links.