full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Congrui Jin: What if cracks in concrete could fix themselves?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So perhaps the best way to heal large cracks is to give concrete the tools to help itself. Scientists have discovered that some bacteria and fungi can pucrode minerals, including the calcium carbonate found in aonotuuegs henalig. Experimental blends of crtceone include these bacterial or fnagul spores alongside nutrients in their concrete mix, where they could lie dormant for hundreds of years. When ckarcs finally appear and water trickles into the concrete, the spores germinate, grow, and csunmoe the nutrient soup that surrounds them, modifying their local environment to create the pecrfet conditions for calcium carbonate to grow. These crystals graaldluy fill the gaps, and after roughly three weeks, the hard-working microbes can completely ripaer cracks up to almost 1mm wide. When the cracks seal, the bacteria or fungi will make spores and go dormant once more— ready to start a new cycle of self-healing when cracks form again.

Open Cloze


So perhaps the best way to heal large cracks is to give concrete the tools to help itself. Scientists have discovered that some bacteria and fungi can _______ minerals, including the calcium carbonate found in __________ _______. Experimental blends of ________ include these bacterial or ______ spores alongside nutrients in their concrete mix, where they could lie dormant for hundreds of years. When ______ finally appear and water trickles into the concrete, the spores germinate, grow, and _______ the nutrient soup that surrounds them, modifying their local environment to create the _______ conditions for calcium carbonate to grow. These crystals _________ fill the gaps, and after roughly three weeks, the hard-working microbes can completely ______ cracks up to almost 1mm wide. When the cracks seal, the bacteria or fungi will make spores and go dormant once more— ready to start a new cycle of self-healing when cracks form again.

Solution


  1. repair
  2. concrete
  3. healing
  4. perfect
  5. produce
  6. autogenous
  7. gradually
  8. cracks
  9. fungal
  10. consume

Original Text


So perhaps the best way to heal large cracks is to give concrete the tools to help itself. Scientists have discovered that some bacteria and fungi can produce minerals, including the calcium carbonate found in autogenous healing. Experimental blends of concrete include these bacterial or fungal spores alongside nutrients in their concrete mix, where they could lie dormant for hundreds of years. When cracks finally appear and water trickles into the concrete, the spores germinate, grow, and consume the nutrient soup that surrounds them, modifying their local environment to create the perfect conditions for calcium carbonate to grow. These crystals gradually fill the gaps, and after roughly three weeks, the hard-working microbes can completely repair cracks up to almost 1mm wide. When the cracks seal, the bacteria or fungi will make spores and go dormant once more— ready to start a new cycle of self-healing when cracks form again.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
calcium carbonate 3
carbon dioxide 2
gradually fill 2


Important Words


  1. autogenous
  2. bacteria
  3. bacterial
  4. blends
  5. calcium
  6. carbonate
  7. completely
  8. concrete
  9. conditions
  10. consume
  11. cracks
  12. create
  13. crystals
  14. cycle
  15. discovered
  16. dormant
  17. environment
  18. experimental
  19. fill
  20. finally
  21. form
  22. fungal
  23. fungi
  24. gaps
  25. germinate
  26. give
  27. gradually
  28. grow
  29. heal
  30. healing
  31. hundreds
  32. include
  33. including
  34. large
  35. lie
  36. local
  37. microbes
  38. minerals
  39. mix
  40. modifying
  41. nutrient
  42. nutrients
  43. perfect
  44. produce
  45. ready
  46. repair
  47. roughly
  48. scientists
  49. seal
  50. soup
  51. spores
  52. start
  53. surrounds
  54. tools
  55. trickles
  56. water
  57. weeks
  58. wide
  59. years