There wouldn’t be so many spy novels if there weren’t something so delightfully compelling about the idea of being a spy: you’re invited to imagine that your job is to sneak around in a trench coat and fedora, talking out of the side of your mouth and pretending to be something or someone you’re not in order to gather information on behalf of the resistance.

Knowing something you’re forbidden to know, or that other people want to know but don’t – or that other people don’t think you know, imparts a feeling of power and control that is like fresh, unadulterated catnip to a newborn kitten: heady stuff.

Image courtesy mike.shannonandmike.net

When I was younger I spent a lot of time writing cryptic messages in lemon juice on slips of computer paper – which at that time came in continuous sheets bordered by strips with holes and was divided by perforations for use in dot matrix printers. These messages could be passed with great stealth to friends in the school yard, who would then hold the paper over a heat source to reveal the messages. In the presence of heat, the acid in the lemon juice made the paper turn brown wherever it had been applied, thereby allowing dedicated ten year-olds to let each other know that someone had recently acquired a Barbie house.

I guess these days ten year-olds just text or email each other, which is great because it leaves more lemons for lemonade stands and other entrepreneurial activities.  But I am pretty sure the researchers who developed SPAM grew up in a time where analog methods were used to exchange information.  SPAM stands for “stenography by printed arrays of microbes” and it has nothing whatsoever to do with canned meat products.  The idea is that messages are encoded in colors of glowing bacteria, and they can be unlocked with antibiotics.

Image courtesy wikimedia commons

People have been encoding secret messages in living molecules for a while, but SPAM is unique among these methods because it’s simple: it requires “no gene sequencing equipment, microscopes, or other scarce and expensive laboratory gear to extract the coded message. Some simple LEDs and a smartphone would suffice, allowing the recipient to receive the printed microbes through the mail and quickly and easily unlock the message” (Dillow).  So maybe it’s a viable option for ten year-olds after all.

The research team inserted fluorescent proteins into seven different strains of the amazingly useful Escherichia coli bacteria, so that they would each glow in one of seven different colors under the right light.  The engineered bacterial were then grown in sequences of paired dots that represented numbers or letters and imprinted on a sheet of nitrocellulose (Dillow).  This meant that the message could be sent through the post like any other highly flammable piece of paper.

Image courtesy spam.com

The recipient of the message simply regrows the bacteria, places it under the right kind of light or exposes it to antibiotics, and BAM – the coded message reveals itself. The researchers were able to tune the bacteria to only express colors after a specific period of time, to respond to specific antibiotics and not others, and they even created a strain that would die off after a certain period of time.  To put it another way: this means that the message could literally self destruct in five seconds, which makes me absurdly happy (possibly because I’ve watched a LOT of Mission: Impossible over the years.

Although this messaging system is as cool as a tiger frolicking in the cool waters of a river in Southeast Asia, there are some issues: for one thing, a finite number of antibiotics presently exist in the world so messages could be decoded by a straightforward process of trial and error. The researchers behind the technology aren’t troubled by this limitation because they’re less interested in spy drama than you’d expect: “they’re more interested in developing new ways to watermark genetically modified organisms with ‘biological barcodes’ to protect intellectual property and make the world safer for modified life” (Dillow).

I was disappointed to learn that the bacteria are essentially a glowing copyright notice, but the fact remains that this development is rife with potential. In fact, I’m not going to say how I know this but I just found out that someone very close to you recently acquired a Barbie house.

WU XING:

I am filing super-spy bacterial invisible ink under water and earth.

Cited:

Dillow, Clay. “By Encoding Messages in Glowing Proteins, Scientists Turn E. Coli Into Invisible Ink.” Popsci.com 09/27/11. Accessed 10/05/11. URL.

ARCHITERIALS is a year old now, and like most healthy, well-adjusted one-year-olds it needs to be changed constantly, crawls all over my apartment, and makes strange burbling noises.  No, really – it does.  It’s terrifying.

Over the past year I’ve profiled approximately 65 materials and learned about blogging, bacteria, and biscuits, although I must confess that the biscuts were a side project.  A delicious, buttery side project.  Anyhow, to celebrate the birthday of ARCHITERIALS and the fact that the tagline “Investigating architectural materials since 2010” has finally attained temporal legitimacy, I’ve compiled for this, the 10th day of January,  a list of 10 materials from 2010 that are generally awesome.  I’ve also summarized the awesomeness of each material in a brief paragraph, and I’ve tried to frame each one as part of a larger, sort of big-picture trend in materials science that I’m studying.  Should you click on the links and read the detailed posts about each material for more information? Definitely. 

Finally, thank you so much to those who’ve submitted information, followed, liked, and posted photos over the past year, I appreciate it more than you can imagine!  Keep the materials coming and do tell your friends if your friends seem like people who might be interested in ARCHITERIALS.

Ten Awesome Materials from 2010 and Reasons They are Awesome:

1.  Materials that can be deployed in disasters or used to improve living conditions:  Concrete Cloth

Concrete cloth is a concrete-impregnated fabric that is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and generally fantastic.  Applications include: gabion reinforcement, sandbag defenses, ground surfacing/dust suppression, ditch lining, landing surfaces, formwork, spill containment and landfill lining, waterproofing, building cladding, boat ramps, erosion control, roof repair, water and septic tanks.  Concrete cloth solves problems you don’t even know you have, although nothing can repair your terrible relationship with your mother-in-law.   

2.  Sustainable, non-toxic materials:  Reclaimed Wood and Agricultural Fiber Panels

Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard made from the non-food portions (stalks and husks) of sorghum, coconut, and wheat plants.  The agricultural fiber that’s not sold by farmers for use in the manufacture of Kirei board takes up space in landfills or gets burned up and pollutes the air – therefore repurposing it cuts down on that sort of thing.  Sustainable building materials make the planet happy, and a happy planet makes for happy people. 

3.  Biodegradable materials:  Arbofoam

As it turns out, lignin can be transformed into a renewable plastic if it’s combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers. The resulting bio-plastic, called Arboform, can be thermoformed, foamed, or molded via injection machines.  It’s durable and super-precise when it’s cast, and it degrades similar to wood into water, humus, and carbon dioxide. It’s very cool stuff indeed and I’d love it if someone would send me information about a project where it’s been used.  Biodegradable materials cut down on landfill and reduce environmental pollution. 

4.  Thermoplastic/thermoelastic/thermoformed/thermo-etcetera materials:  Chemical Velcro

How could you not get excited about an adhesive 10 times stickier than Velcro and the reusable gecko-inspired glues that many research groups have been trying to perfect that comes apart when heated??!  I have been trying without success to get my hands on some of this to build demountable partition walls for my tiny apartment, and I’m not giving up.  Materials that respond to changes in temperature by changing their behavior or attributes will find widespread application in the future. 

5.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves:  Liquid Glass

Liquid glass a coating that takes advantages of the unique properties of materials at nanoscale.  It is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids.  According to manufacturers, you can spray liquid glass on everything from wood to seeds to your sneakers.  It could someday replace all the toxic cleaning products you currently use to tidy and disinfect, and it reportedly costs about 8 dollars.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves cut down on the need for toxic chemicals and pollutants. 

6.  Materials that emit light efficiently:   White LED Lights

White LED lights emit more light than a typical 20-watt fluorescent bulb, as well as more light for a given amount of power. With these improvements, the new LEDs can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.  Shedding light on any given subject has never been more efficient.  As we transition to alternative forms of energy we are also looking for materials that emit light without using much energy in the first place.

7.  Nanomaterials:  Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles can be used to further increase the efficiency of LED lights.  Researchers have implanted the particles in the leaves of aquatic plants, causing the leaves to emit red light.  Theoretically, the light produced by the leaves could cause their chloroplasts to conduct photosynthesis, meaning that no additional energy source would be needed to power the process.  In fact, the leaves would actually work overtime, absorbing CO₂ at night.  Nanomaterials allow us to intervene in processes like photosynthesis with a previously unheard-of degree of delicacy.

8.  Materials that augment already useful material properties:  Bendywood 

Bendywood is wood that has been pre-compressed so that it can be easily bent by hand.  The tension that forms on the outside of a bend merely returns the plant cells to their former shape, and the wood doesn’t break.  The material is delightfully flexible and pliable.  Bendywood was developed for indoor uses such as furniture, handrails, or curved mouldings, and it shows enormous promise.  Materials like Bendywood amplify the appealing properties of familiar materials so that it’s even easier to use them to our benefit.

9.  Bio-based materials:  Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

At the intersection of biology and solar tech, there are jellyfish that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP).  Dripping GFP onto a silicon dioxide substrate between two electrodes causes it to work itself into strands, creating a circuit that absorbs photons and emits electrons in the presence of ultraviolet light.  The electron current (aka electricity) can then be used to power your hairdryer.  I’m completely fascinated by materials that help us to blur the boundaries between biological and man-made machines.

10.  Materials that repair themselves:  Bacilla Filla

Bacilla Filla is a material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  Custom-designed bacteria burrows deep into the cracks in concrete, where they produce a mix of calcium carbonate and a special bacteria glue that hardens to the same strength of the surrounding concrete.  Materials that can detect their own flaws and damage and repair themselves will revolutionize the way we build and think about building materials in the future.

Joints are like an after-school program for cracks in concrete. If we fail to provide a place for cracks to occur safely, under supervision, and in aesthetically pleasing configurations, we as a society will be faced with complete anarchy in our walls and slabs.  This horrifying chaos could lead to unwed, underage cracks begetting more cracks and, possibly even more alarming, cracks on crack.

Sometimes, despite the provision of joints and reinforcing in concrete to resist tension, construction goes horribly wrong. Say the mix is off, or the wrong strength is used by mistake, or perhaps someone throws an empty can on the ground and it rolls into the formwork whereupon it gets cast into the underside of the slab, weakening it in a place where it ought to be strong. Or imagine if something were to explode unexpectedly, blasting a wall with forces it wasn’t designed to resist. Concrete is a pretty forgiving medium but there are limits. In any of these situations cracks can start to form that either weaken a structure or at the very least damage it aesthetically.

Image courtesy popsci.com

Until recently the solution to a lot of these crack problems was rehab – tearing out the offending concrete and recasting or patching it -usually an expensive proposition.  Sometimes people drip high-strength epoxies into the cracks hoping the glue will hold everything together, but this tactic engenders a new set of problems.  For example, if the glue is stronger than the concrete it puts a whole new set of stresses on the material.

Now there is another way. Researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK have invented a bio-based material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  They’ve “custom-designed a bacteria to burrow deep into the cracks in concrete where they produce a mix of calcium carbonate and a special bacteria glue that hardens to the same strength of the surrounding concrete” (Dillow).  That’s right, people.  Bacteria glue to the rescue!

Image courtesy en.citizendium.org

“BacillaFilla,” as the researchers call it, is a genetically modified version of Bacillus subtilis.  Apparently Bacillus subtilis (what a great name for a bacteria by the way – it sounds unobtrusive and subtle and as though it’s found below tiles) is everywhere around us and easily encountered in common soil.  The Newcastle researchers “have tweaked its genetic properties such that it only begins to germinate when it comes in contact with the highly-specific pH of concrete. Once the cells germinate, they are programmed to crawl as deep as they can into cracks in the concrete, where quorum sensing lets them know when enough bacteria have accumulated” (Dillow).

When the bacteria reach the deepest part of the crack and their spidey sense tells them they’ve reached an appropriate population size, they start to morph.  The cells begin to develop bacterial filaments, to produce calcium carbonate, and to “secrete a kind of bacterial glue that binds everything together. Once hardened, the bacteria is essentially as strong as the concrete itself, restoring structural strength and adding life to the surrounding concrete.  The bacteria also contains a self-destruct gene that keeps it from wildly proliferating away from its concrete target, because a runaway patch of bacterial concrete that continued to grow despite all efforts to stop it would be somewhat annoying” (Dillow).  So unlike the brute force approach of tearing out an entire zone of concrete, or the “coat everything with epoxy and cross your fingers” route, BacillaFilla has a kind of emergent intelligence that lets it assess and repair each unique crack. 

BacillaFilla could be used to improve the longevity of concrete structures, which means we’d need to build fewer of them.  That’s bad news for architects but good news for the planet because a lot of energy goes into the production of new concrete.  The material might also be deployed where earthquakes have damaged buildings, reducing the number of structures that would need to be torn down.  I also wonder if the bacteria could be tweaked so as to first build concrete structures and then maintain them over time? 

WU XING:

I’m filing BacillaFilla under earth because they’re living in the soil and etc.

Cited:

Dillow, Clay. “Bacteria Can Fill Cracks in Aging Concrete.” Popsci.com. 11/16/10.  Accessed 11/30/10.  URL.

Image courtesy babylovingmama.com

Now imagine restroom tiles that not only contend with gravity and wear and tear, but that also play an active part in improving the quality of the environment.  Stonepeak Ceramics in collaboration with Fiandre have developed Active Ceramics (antibacterial, antifungal, self-cleaning tiles that mitigate indoor air pollution).  I’m not making this up: production plants for ActiveTM Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic have already been completed both in Tennessee  and in Modena, Italy. 

Image courtesy www.kitchenisms.com – note: tiles by Heather Knight of Element Clay Studio

Active Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic is a material obtained using a new methodology applied to porcelain tiles, which exploits the principle of photocatalysis, activated by semiconductor titanium dioxide (TiO2).  Photocatalysis is a way of using light (usually sunlight) to drive a “useful” chemical reaction.  This could involve splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen, but it might also mean turning organic chemicals into water and carbon dioxide (Calvinus).

Image courtesy calvinus.wordpress.com

Photocatalysis is nothing more than the acceleration of oxidation processes that are already present in nature, and helps to speed up the breakdown of the polluting agents present in the environment.  According to Fiandre, the process prevents the build-up and spread of bacteria on tiles because it is “carrying out a self-cleaning action” (Source: Press Release, Fiandre).   

Image courtesy Millron

But before we all run out and retile our bathrooms, I’d like to present a caveat or two.  It should be noted that for photocatalysis to occur, “the light hitting the tiles must have enough energy to overcome barriers in the semiconductor.  For titanium dioxide, this means the light has to be particularly high in energy – it can only use ultraviolet light.  Given that this is only around 4% of natural sunlight, this is a problem if photocatalysis is to be a useful process.  This is especially the case for indoor applications where room lights tend to have negligible ultraviolet light” (Calvinus).  While I’m excited by the idea that porcelain tiles could have an impact on indoor air quality, I noticed several Barry Bonds style asterisks on the product information for Active Ceramics that stipulated the results applied only for exterior applications.  But hey, whoever said a ceiling was a requirement in a public restroom?

Even if titanium dioxide-based photocatalysis is a less robust bacteria-killing, air-filtering process than we’d like, the notion that we ought to call upon our materials to work harder and do more to reduce pollution is not without value.  And if only a small amount of self-cleaning and bacteria termination is occuring, I’d say that’s better than nothing!  What do you think?  Hit the comments.

WU XING:

I’m filing Antibacterial tiles in the EARTH category.

Cited:

Press Release, Fiandre.  Milano.  28 September 2010.

Calvinus.  “Photocatalysis: Buy my Snake Oil” Post Tenebras Lux.  09/30/09.  Accessed 11/05/10.  URL.

A long time ago before we were born, probably after he’d had a few and was waxing philosophical, Chicago architect Louis Sullivan wrote:

“It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic,
of all things physical and metaphysical,
of all things human and all things super-human,
of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.”

Sullivan designed intricate ornamental elements inspired by natural forms, which were meant to look completely complex and awesome as well as to express structure and the organization of his buildings.  Sometimes I wonder what kind of crazy architectural shenanigans Ol’ Sully would be wreaking if he’d lived during the era of digital fabrication; imagine what the man responsible for the content in the image below could have done with access to a computer and some lasers.

Image courtesy http://noonjes.wordpress.com/

Maybe if he were alive today, like the designers at metal fabrication shop MILGO/BUFKIN, Sullivan would have been inspired by the clustering habits of bacteria and protozoa to create perforated metal tiles with intriguing organic-shaped voids.  HyperGrill tiles can be used in places where you might see a standard (boring) metal grate.  According to the product data, the tiles are “inspired by cellular constructions found in nature. The automated fabrication of these flat, surfaces allows for the creation of a variety of periodic, aperiodic and random designs that find application in architecture and interior design” (Source: MetaMatter).  It makes sense to me that a dense pattern of openings would take its form from organisms that cluster and grow to fill whatever surface they inhabit.

MILGO/BUFKIN manufactures to customer specification using sophisticated CAD software, giant press brakes, metal shears, laser and water jet cutters, punches, and precision welding equipment.  They fabricate all things metal, from “massive curtain wall components to column covers to decorative metal trim to fine sculpture.”  They’re based in Brooklyn and it’s my understanding that you can schedule a tour of their facilities if you’re so inclined.

Images courtesy MILGO/BUFKIN

WU XING:

I’m filing HyperGrills under Metal because they’re taking advantage of the wondrous properties of said material by being fabricated out of it.

… sorry, my brain malfunctioned while I was trying to convert from metric without a calculator.  Leaving caculations out of this, when you think about how many ants there are, and then you think about how much BACTERIA could live on an ant, then if you’re like me, you’ll freak out for a minute.  When you pull yourself together, you’re going to try to come up with a way that humans might be able put bacteria to work for our own selfish ends (for instance attempting to ensure we are not overrun by trillions of ants).

Image credit www.accelterm.com

I’m pretty sure this is the exact thought process that led biotechnology company Genecor to engineer up some bacteria to manufacture Bioisoprene.  Isoprene is a chemical that can be used to make tire rubber and that can also be combined with other materials in various mysterious and sciencey ways to make gasoline and jet fuel.  I’m bringing this to your attention because we use a surprising amount of rubber in the construction industry, and I feel the need to get the word out when something that could eventually compete with petroleum-derived rubber is in the works.

Image courtesy www.marlerblog.com

Genencor gathered up some bacteria – let’s say it was E. coli because we’ve all heard of it and because E. coli make small amounts of isoprene as they metabolize your spoiled food and because E. coli is what Genencor actually used – then they started making changes to metabolic pathways and added a “plant gene coding for isoprene synthase, an enzyme that converts the precursor directly into isoprene” (Bourzac).  So the fancy new E. coli exist to emit 99% pure Isoprene gas, which can be polymerized to make synthetic rubber.

Image credit Genecor

Goodyear (the tire company) has manufactured a few prototype tires out of the Bioisoprene, and you may see them on the market in five years or so.  About a quarter of a tire is made up of rubber, and “the U.S. market for pure isoprene today is two billion pounds per year; 60 percent of that is used in tires, and the rest is used in adhesives and specialty chemicals” (Bourzac).  You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking we need to train the ants to polymerize the bioisoprene and we’ll have it made in the shade.

*@OMGfacts on twitter.

WU XING:

Bioisoprene is a gas at room temperature so I’ve filed it under fire.  I also think this could be a wood material because it is used to make rubber.

Cited:

Bourzac, Katherine. “Rubber from Microbes.”  Technology Review 03/25/10. Accessed 03/25/10.  URL.

Image courtesy carolinabees.com

I’m not exactly sure how they managed it, but these industrious researchers “have managed to pull threads of honeybee silkfrom a stew of transgenically-produced silk proteins, meaning cheaper, stronger lightweight textiles and composites with myriad uses could be around the corner” (Dillow).  They physically pulled these threads from the honeybees somehow (I guess they drugged them with smoke first?  I always see people drugging bees with smoke to make them drowsy).  These silk threads are fantastic because they consist of coils that are all coiled up, similar to our family phone cords back in the 1980’s.  If you were to take enough of these coiled coil threads and weave them into textiles, the thought is, you’d be hard pressed to find a more durable bee-produced material.

Image courtesy University of Cambridge Engineering

So it probably takes a long time and is kind of inconvenient to pull silk threads out of honeybees all day, so researchers assembled some recombinant E. coli bacteria (it’s not just for gastric distress anymore!) who stepped up and made artificial construction of the silk thread possible.  The bacteria cells were tweaked to produce the honeybee proteins (of which, you will recall, there are 4) and these, “with a little prodding, self-assembled into the proper structure to mimic honeybee silk” (Dillow).  So now we can make this strong insect silk in mass quantities, because recombinant E. coli doesn’t break for lunch.

This also means I can look forward to featuring honeybee silk textiles, lightweight composites for use in marine construction and in aviation in the coming years!  I’m so excited.  I’m so … scared.

WU XING:

This entry is about protein, essentially, so I put it in the metal category because it just feels tough and durable and kind of ductile like metal – although I am not sure yet if this silk is any of these things.  What do you think about that?

Cited:

Atkins, William.  “Artificial Silk Could be the Bee’s Knees.”  iTWire.com 02/03/10.  Accessed 02/02/10.  URL.

Dillow, Clay. “Tough, Lightweight Honeybee Silk Could Revolutionize Textiles, Composites.”  Popsci.com 02/03/10.  Accessed 02/03/10.  URL.