Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have now developed a new technology that allows the wood to be grown in labs, to take action against global warming.
The main ways in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere is by the help of plants, more exactly trees. A plus factor in the logging industry is carbon-dioxide released from the machines used in this process, not to mention the transportation of the wood and processing it later on.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated a proof of concept by growing wood-like structures from cells from a plant.
The particular plant's name is the Zinnia plant.
Fun fact about the plant. This isn't the first time we experiment with this plant.
There was an Experimentation aboard the International Space Station that has demonstrated the capability of zinnias to grow and blossom in a weightless environment.
Back to our story.
Now I couldn't find the exact process of how the researchers have done it in the lab, but as far as we know it. Scientists are using plant-hormones from the zinnia plant in order to kick-start a process in which the plant cells multiply themselves without the aid of sunlight.
Ashley Beckwith the lead Researcher of the project says she came up with this idea of the sustainable wood culture after she saw with her own eyes what waste is happening in the agricultural industry.
In an interview with the MTI news she stated:
"That got me thinking: Can we be more strategic about what we're getting out of our process? Can we get more yield for our inputs? I wanted to find a more efficient way to use land and resources so that we could let more arable areas remain wild, or to remain lower production but allow for greater biodiversity"
He told MIT News the process is still in early development. But if it can be perfected, it could simplify and speed up the production of wood products Luis Fernando Velásquez-García added:
"The way we get these materials hasn't changed in centuries and is very inefficient. This is a real chance to bypass all that inefficiency. The idea is not only to tailor the properties of the material but also to tailor the shape from conception."
The current process and technology are for making a wooden table. The tree has to grow, it must be cut down, transported, processed. Velásquez-García says lab-grown wood could combine all those steps into one.
“If you want a table, then you should just grow a table,”
The process is similar to lab-produced meat, which is grown from live animal cells. But in the wood experiment, the MIT team collected live cells from the zinnia plant. The plant cells were then cultured and kept in an environment designed to activate and support growth. "Plant cells are similar to stem cells in the sense that they can become anything if they are induced to,” Velásquez-García said.
The experiment was carried out indoors, without soil or sunlight. Also with further development, the researchers stated they could use the same process to grow wood in specific shapes, such as a table or chair, reducing the processes needed for the end product.
The team will be working to improve the method, primarily to grasp how to better control the final materials that are produced. In the future, the researchers want to carry out new experiments to see whether the same results can be reached with other kinds of plants.
The cultured-wood idea is somewhat the same as the process that is used to produce lab-grown meat, cells are replicated in a laboratory to produce meat for consumption without harming animals.
David Stern is a plant biologist and president of the Boyce Thompson Institute. who was not involved in the study? Has one big question is whether the technology can be effectively scaled and remain economically competitive.
Stern added that scaling up the method would require major financial and intellectual investments. And he said new issues would arise when bringing parts of forestry and agriculture into the lab. With this said let's hope Bill Gates heard about this research and boosts up the time and technology of the process with some major financial and intellectual investments.
“Agriculture uses the sun’s energy through photosynthesis, and…natural rainfall. It does not require buildings, heat, or artificial light,”
Producing lab-grown wood is currently very expensive because of its current process in this early stage. But researchers point out the fact that lab-grown meat has reduced in cost from $300,000 for 1 hamburger to just $12 in a very short time. So they hope that cultured-wood will become an inexpensive and eco-friendly replacement to traditionally sourced wood with the further research they are running a race with time. I wish them good luck. Let's all hope we can make a big change with technologies like lab-grown wood, meat and so much more.
What do you think about these new processes? Would you be willing to use lab-grown wood, if not why so?"
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