Humans destroy ten million hectares of forest each year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
According to a statement, researchers at MIT have come up with a new way to grow wood-like plant material in a lab, potentially paving the way for an eco-friendly new source for lumber.
The researchers say that such lumber could be used to frame houses, make them more efficient, or even grow eco-friendly furniture.
The researchers haven't figured out how to grow lab-grown wood yet. It sounds like they have made significant strides in developing material that resembles plants by culturing cells from young leaves of a common decorative flower, using different hormones.
The new properties of the material could make it even more useful. By adjusting the chemicals involved in growing it, the researchers were able to change the material's density and stiffness, and it can be printed in virtually any shape using 3D bioprinting techniques.
There is a lot of potential to expand this and grow three-dimensional structures, according to the statement.
The idea is that you can grow these plant materials in exactly the shape that you need, so you don't need to do any subtractive manufacturing after the fact, which reduces the amount of energy and waste.
The team is evaluating whether the same method could be used to grow different types of pine, making it a potentially game-changing alternative to cutting down trees.
Beckwith said that trees and forests are an amazing tool for helping manage climate change, so being as strategic as we can with these resources will be a societal necessity going forward.
The timber is grown in a lab.
Scientists create clear, glasslike material out of wood.
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