sounds like a bad sci-fi movie

[E.J.]

Scientists have designed a bacteria that binds together cracks in concrete:

The genetically modified microbe has been programmed to swim down fine cracks in concrete and once at the bottom it produces a mixture of calcium carbonate and a bacterial glue. This glue combines with the filamentous bacterial cells, ultimately hardening to the same strength as the surrounding concrete and essentially "knitting" the building back together.

Read the rest HERE

[Trab]

Nice, but I'll bet they haven't thought about the negative sides of this. As far as I can see, these things sense the right pH balance, which could occur in any number of ways. We could have little clumps of concrete growing in all sorts of unwanted places.

[Bruin Fisher]

How are they going to contain the bacteria, stop them spreading to places they're not wanted?

Many years ago, the Plane trees in New York were dying because a bug of some sort was damaging them. The Plane trees in London were thriving, though, so scientists investigated and found that the London sparrows kept the bugs at bay. So they brought a load of sparrows to New York to kill the bugs, but they quickly found the wheat fields outside the city and became the farmer's pest that they still are today. And the plane trees continued to deteriorate.

The moral of this story: if you're going to mess with nature, make sure you know what you're doing!!

[Merkin]

We messed with Nature the moment we poured concrete slabs and laid asphalt roads and it probably is too late to turn back. I'm surprised those sycamore trees have any life left in them at all, and I don't begrudge the bugs their snacks.

James