Human bones make great architectural models, and they could also inspire the next renaissance in sustainable architecture.
If you’re designing a building, a lot depends on the materials you choose. Human bones are made from a composite, a fifty-fifty combination of calcium and collagen. Hydroxyapatite, the calcium compound, is incredibly strong but brittle—alone, it snaps as soon as it reaches its weight limit. Think of a bridge of diamond, another brittle material. “We would never build a bridge out of diamond, not because it’s expensive but because it’s so brittle,” says Ahmed Elbanna, a civil engineer at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “It can carry a tremendous load, but if the load exceeds its strength, it will shatter without warning.” In your bones, the malleable collagen adds a flexible strength to the calcium, protecting your bones from shattering every time you do vigorous physical activity.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
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