Scientists already know how to create artificial meat, thanks to which in the future people will kill fewer animals. But artificial wood still does not exist and therefore we are forced to cut down trees and deprive the animal natural habitat. But this also leads to their gradual extinction. Fortunately, recently American scientists made the first steps to solve this problem. They learned to multiply plant cells in such a way that the structure is as a result, which is very similar to the real wood. But the main feature of the developed technology is that in the theory of wood you can immediately give the right form. To make a table or other furniture, you do not need to grow boards, cut them to fix them with each other. Just need to give vegetation cells to multiply, without leaving for certain frames.
Learn more about what artificial meat is and how it is created, you can read in this material. But first let's talk about artificial wood.
How do artificial wood produce?
The new technology for creating artificial wood was told in the scientific edition of New Atlas. The authors of the scientific discovery are the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, headed by Professor Ashley Beckwith (Ashley Beckwith). As a raw material for the production of artificial wood, they decided to use live cells taken from Zinnia's leaves (Zínnia). It can grow at any point of the planet and is often used within scientific work. For example, in 2016, Zinnia became the first plant, which bloomed on board the International Space Station.
Within the framework of the new scientific work, the researchers removed the living cells of Zinnia and placed them in a nutrient medium. After making sure that the cells began to be reproduced, scientists moved them into a bulk form, inside which they could continue reproduction. The cells were added to the cells of the auxin and cytokinin, so that they began to produce a substance, referred to as lignin. It is it that gives wood hardness - in fact, this is the basis of the material being developed. Ultimately, lignin and plant cells filled emptiness inside the bulk form.
According to scientists, changing the concentration of two hormones, artificial wood can be given different levels of hardness. Only at the moment they were able to create only a very small figure. And they did not report how much time it took to create it. But if the reproduction of cells and the production of lignin takes weeks or at least months, this is an excellent technology. Furniture manufacturers will be able to produce relatively cheap products when creating which not a single present tree is injured. But that the developed technology has become a massive, a lot of additional research should be carried out. At a minimum, it is necessary to check how durable products from artificial wood are obtained and whether this material does not harm the health of people.
See also: Why satellites are made of metal, not a tree?
What is artificial wood for?
Scientists and themselves know that they have yet to solve many questions. According to one of the authors of the study of Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia (Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia), they need to find out if such a trick with alive cells will work from the leaves of other plants. After all, if the manufacturers of furniture suddenly pounce on the above-mentioned zinnia, they will very quickly disappear from the face of our planet. The defenders of nature can take them in time, but in this case, the cross will be installed on the developed technology for the production of artificial wood. So it is necessary to hope that the cells of other plants interact with the lignin in the same way.
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But American scientists are not the only ones who experiment with wood. In 2019 by Hi-News.ru, Ilya Hel told about how Swedish scientists managed to develop a transparent material that has all the wood properties. It misses the sunlight pretty well, but it absorbs and emits heat. If such a material ever becomes popular, unusual houses may appear in the world that allow you to save on electricity and heating. Only here are transparent homes - this is something from the novel "We" Zamytina. And in such a future, it is unlikely that someone wants to live.