The ability for materials to self-heal or grow new material to replace damaged material is an easy task for Nature, but not so common in engineering. Current approaches implement crystal-producing bacteria within concrete materials. In this issue of Matter, Srubar and colleagues explore the use of a photosynthetic cyanobacterium embedded in a sand-hydrogel scaffold to produce a promising concrete-alternative.

中文翻译：

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延长自修复结构材料的寿命

材料自愈或生长新材料以替换损坏的材料的能力对自然界而言是一项轻松的任务，但在工程中并不常见。当前的方法在混凝土材料中实现产生晶体的细菌。在本期《物质》杂志中，Srubar及其同事探索了将光合作用的蓝藻细菌嵌入沙子水凝胶支架中的方法，以生产出有希望的混凝土替代品。