Living concrete capable of self-healing

Today I’m going to talk to you about Concrete, yes concrete that thing that most houses are
built with
Now you might say why is she talking about concrete, what does it have to do with science
and technology innovations?

Well science and technology has evolved so much in the last years that scientists have
developed what they call living concrete by using sand, gel and bacteria.
This self- healing concrete looks just like concrete but it can fix its cracks on its own almost
automatically so it’s a self-repairing concrete.
Concrete has a poor tensile strength which is the maximum stress that a material can
withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking, and as we all know after
earthquakes or with a lot of pressure walls or even the ceiling can start to crack which
weakens the structure of the house or building it makes the structure more vulnerable.
Therefore, it is really important to try to limit the crack of the concrete and repair it as
quickly as possible.
Ok, so now that scientists have created this concrete that is going to make structures to last
longer how does it work?
When they are creating the concrete there are selected types of the bacteria called Genus
Bacillus, along with a calcium-based nutrient known as calcium lactate nitrogen and
phosphorus. Whenever the concrete is damaged and water starts entering the cracks that
appear in the concrete, the spores of the bacteria fertilize after coming in contact with
water and nutrients will get activated. In easy language, this concrete has some bacterias
and when it gets cracked this bacteria starts like feeding the other bacterias in the concrete
and they start growing until the crack isn’t there anymore. It is basically the same thing as
when we break a bone in our body it heals itself with time.

So this self-healing concrete has quite a few advantages such as

- It can last till 80 years so it helps to decline the use of concrete which is responsible
for 9% of Co2 emission around the world, so it is eco-friendly
- Maintenance and repair are less required.

Nevertheless, just like almost everything around the world it also has its disadvantages
such as
- A higher price than normal concrete (however we can think about it as an inversion
because maintenance is less required)
- The germination of the bacteria is not possible in all kind of environments
- Bacteria that are used in concrete are not efficient for human health; hence its usage
has to be limited to the structure,nonetheless scientists are trying to evolve this
concrete for it to absorb the bacteria that aren’t good for the human health which
can create a critical situation
- And there aren’t a lot of builder that know how to use this material
In conclusion, this self-healing concrete can help decrease the Co2 emissions around the
world which makes it eco-friendly but it's still in process to ameliorate but who knows
maybe in 20 years or less houses are going to be built with this kind of concrete and without
significant consequences.