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Sustainable timber. Given it's popularity as a building material (at least in Australia) I'm surprised there isn't more research into genetically modifying trees to grow quickly / have desirable characteristics for construction / need less land and water. I wonder if lab grown timber is a possibility. (I could also imagine a GM'd fast growing tree becoming a ecological disaster though...)


Quick and desirable for construction is a hard one. A slower growth is better as the food is then denser which means it's stronger.

Maybe solution is some type of composite of fast growing fiber material combined with some type of binder...


I guess in many ways we're doing that already with pine board ply and bamboo benchtops.




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