4 ms·
"They estimate it could prolong the lifespan of roads by 30 per cent." In my book that barely qualifies as "self-healing." It's a useful addition, and if it's
by gcanyon 2y ago
"They estimate it could prolong the lifespan of roads by 30 per cent."
In my book that barely qualifies as "self-healing." It's a useful addition, and if it's cost-effective it's worth doing, but self-healing (again, to me) implies more than the technical fact of what happens at the micro-level: it implies a technique that maintains the road indefinitely, or at least...2x? 30 percent sounds more like "more durable due to resistance to micro-cracks".
- metalman 2y agowe live in a world of unhinged superlatives, its a lost cause trying to be exact, anywhere outside of actual engineering,and I bet you would eat MY socks, to get a look at something that could plausably increase YOUR self healing, definitions and terms be damned,right,:) 30% is a massive and if true, unprecidented increase in life span for a road surfacing material, and would have profound positive impacts on not just civil engineering, but knock on benifts, for ecological and climate issues
- gcanyon 2y agoTotally agreed, 30% would be an awesome improvement if true and cost effective, I'm just grousing about the term "self-healing".
- toss1 2y agoPerhaps consider it 'self-healing' as opposed to 'self-remanufacturing'? Biological wounds often heal with scar tissue which generally prevents the situation from worsening, but is still not as strong as the original undamaged tissue or bone. If it re-manufactured itself, it'd be as good as the original. This seems a bit like that, leaking the vegetable oil into the crack, as blood seeps and clots into a cut, then the bitumen and aggregate can flow together in hot days unhindered by the ordinary-occurring oxidization. Still not as good as undamaged, but better. Seems like an at least good-enough term?
- illusive4080 2y agoYou have to factor in the additional cost of these micro capsules: How hard is it to mix those in on site? What’s the cost to produce them? How fragile are they to work with? Do they hold up in real world conditions? Traditional methods of resealing roads are effective when done at the right time. It takes proactive maintenance. Until this is actually tried in the field in real world conditions I’m not holding my breath for this as a successful method.
- nmeofthestate 2y agoWell, humans are self-healing, but not immortal. 30% increased road lifespan from improved self-repair is quite impressive.
- dinkblam 2y agoif you think our self-healing capacity only increases our lifespan by 30% you are far off...
- schneems 2y agoAre you disagreeing with the analogy by accident or on purpose? All metaphors and analogies are imperfect. They were refuting the idea that self healing == immortal. Your nitpick over the 30% number doesn’t really diminish that. Or if you’re trying to make a joke, then could you state your support/opposition clearly and independently from your joke please?
- SecretDreams 2y agoHow much would our life increase if we got 30% more self healing, though?
- Borg3 2y agoWe would live probably 30% shorter. More self healing, more replication, more offset in DNA means you reach eldery quicker. Every replication event contain tiny chance of mutation as well.
- SecretDreams 2y agoCancer comes from mistakes in the self healing process and erosion of the DNA chain. I think it's implicit that 30% more self healing means "30% more self healing correctly" and not "30% more healing for the same amount of injuries". I think the former is also analogous to the road example.
- hidroto 2y ago