This is scientific American's 60 second science. I'm Christopher in Tagyatta.

Concrete is one of the most widely used materials on the planet.

And this large consumption comes with a heavy ecological price.

Ruzbe Shassavari, a material scientist at Rice University.

Around 5 to 10 percent of the total CO2 emissions comes from concrete production.

One way to reduce those emissions, he says, would be to increase the strength and toughness

of concrete, so you need less of it in construction.

But to make something stronger, you need to understand its weaknesses.

So Shassavari and his team studied the defects in a rock called Tobermorite.

The rock is an analog for wet cement, the main ingredient in concrete.

And they found that certain defects in the rock, they actually made the rock tougher

if they were aligned in a specific configuration.

Sounds counterintuitive.

Defects a good thing?

Defects are typically considered a bad feature of the material,

but when it comes to complex systems like cement or concrete,

it is not the case. It may be an actually an opportunity to introduce

toughness and still, you know, makes something better out of it.

The studies in the journal ACS applied materials and interfaces.

Next step, Shassavari says, would be to optimize concrete recipes, to use these defects in their favor.

Play with the manufacturing temperatures or alter the ratios of impurities in the mix.

Since we are using it in every building, every bridge and every highway in all parts of the world,

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