celluloseNature has always proved to be quite the inspiration when it comes to modern day technology. After all, didn’t man get the inspiration to actually take to the skies after checking out birds that fly? Or, didn’t we want to go down to the depths of the ocean because deep sea creatures have lain and lived there for what seemed like generations? Well, a bunch of researchers over at Purdue University have recently discovered what could very well be the next big super-material, and for all you know, it might even be a carrot.

This team of scientists have taken a closer look at what vegetables and trees are made up of in terms of their building blocks, and saw that they had the same kind of stiffness as steel. Does this mean that we could be growing our very own construction materials in the future, just like how house plants work? Those without green fingers might still need to go purchase some building material from the store even so. Cellulose nanocrystals happen to be the basic structures of plant life, and in a recent experiment, it was discovered to feature a stiffness of 206 gigapascals, which is the same as that of steel. Obviously, plants came first before steel, and it remains to be seen how the flexibility as well as strength of a carrot can be translated to modern day building materials. [Press Release]

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