Concrete has been the backbone of construction since the Roman Empire, but who says it can't have a little upgrade for the 21st century? Engineers at the University of Pittsburgh are now cracking the code of concrete, introducing a new concept for smart infrastructure systems that will revolutionize the construction industry.

Introducing metamaterial concrete, a lightweight and mechanically-tunable concrete system with integrated energy harvesting and sensing functionality. This new material can be designed specifically for its purpose, with attributes such as brittleness, flexibility, and shapeability that can be fine-tuned in the creation of the material. Builders can use less material without sacrificing strength or longevity, making it more economical and environmentally sustainable.

But wait, there's more! The material is also capable of generating electricity, although not enough to power an entire city. The electrical signals it generates can power roadside sensors and monitor damage inside the concrete structure or earthquakes while reducing their impact on buildings. It's like a Swiss army knife of construction materials!

The material is composed of reinforced auxetic polymer lattices embedded in a conductive cement matrix. This composite structure induces contact-electrification between the layers when triggered mechanically. The conductive cement serves as the electrode in the system, which is enhanced with graphite powder to make it even cooler. (Read more here)

The research team is partnering with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) through the IRISE Consortium at Pitt to develop this metamaterial concrete for use on Pennsylvania roads. The possibilities of this smart concrete are endless, from shock absorbing engineered materials at airports to helping self-driving cars navigate on highways when GPS signals are weak. Who knew concrete could be so exciting?

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🌱 Seed of Doubt

Unclonable Labels Could Put an End to Counterfeit Seeds

Fake seeds have long been a problem for African farmers, with up to half of all seeds sold in some African countries being counterfeit. However, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a silk-based tag to tackle seed counterfeiting. The team has created a biodegradable tag that can be applied to seeds, providing a unique code that cannot be duplicated. This system uses minuscule dots of silk-based material, each containing a unique combination of different chemical signatures, that can be read out by an ordinary cellphone camera with a macro lens. The resulting unique patterns can then be processed to generate the PUF code and then sent to a secure database to ensure the authenticity of the product.

Fake seeds can cost farmers more than two-thirds of expected crop yields and threaten food security. In sub-Saharan Africa, counterfeit seeds are a significant factor in crop yields that average less than one-fifth of the potential for maize, and less than one-third for rice. By creating an unclonable code, it is almost impossible to replicate the code, or it takes so much effort that it is not worth it anymore. This new system is a natural choice because the material is not only harmless to the environment but also classified by the Food and Drug Administration in the "generally recognized as safe" category, so it requires no special approval for use on food products. (Read more here)

Developing effective secure system solutions have long been one of the specialties of the team at MIT, who have successfully adapted the idea of physically unclonable functions to create a unique code for each seed, ensuring that farmers can increase their crop yield while contributing to global food security.