These new concrete materials, about 10x stronger than their conventional relatives, are a reminder that rearranging matter on a fine scale can change properties enormously. There are factors of 10x or more to be gained in many properties of materials and systems when we get better at structuring matter using low-cost methods. Biology gives a hint that the structure can of matter be controlled all the way down to the atomic level, and inexpensively at that. The consequences of this for energy and resource policies and politics have scarcely been considered. Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
But then, why on European Tribune ? Maybe because, unlike the casual french politician, the knowledge of how building can progress can be a real asset in coining a new way of living (ergo: a new society).
These materials are important in public health first !
The fight for a better world starts -also- at a lower level. Or how you deal and manage a territory (weather, crops, industry, cities), and how those techniques can be improved, creating new jobs, new relationships between people... Often in a subtle but very common way of dealing with it !
While I'm not an economist, neither a scientist, I was thinking of posting, from time to time, some diaries about those problems. Basic information at first, then the "what we could do" with those techniques and at what relative cost... Neither utopia nor dystopia !
"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
(Expect this concrete diary to be promoted to front page later today) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Innovation at the scientic level, various implementation via "tiger teams" and, ultimately, politics and economics.
I'm one happy scientist reading your post. You've all the three tiers I generally rave about practically covered within one post.
Not to mention you mention silica insulation. Wowsers. Why didn't you start a diary any sooner?
