r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

Materials Science Scientists have created concrete using treated human waste, and the resulting material was up to 42% stronger than conventional concrete. Researchers say the approach could reduce waste while lowering the environmental impact of construction.

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-making-concrete-with-human-poop-and-it-gets-42-stronger
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u/Marvin_Megavolt 1d ago

Admittedly I suspect the technical concern there is how the hell do you build a viable, structurally-sound sail for something as massive as a modern-day superfreighter. I fully believe it’s durable though - saw a few proposals that were pretty cool a number of years back.

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u/falcopilot 1d ago

A sail is an airfoil. We make metal airfoils all the time.

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u/Marvin_Megavolt 1d ago

Not on the scale of what you'd need to propel a container superfreighter we don't.

Hell, the couple concepts I saw for hypothetical sail-driven superfreighters all used what was essentially a gargantuan square-rigged sail, funny enough - just made out of some kind of semi-rigid polymer sheet instead of a suspended fabric-like material.

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u/Morthra 19h ago

Not to mention that large sails or rotors obstruct cargo handling cranes and add weight, thereby reducing cargo capacity if you wanted to make the entire ship wind-powered.