The synthetic material is much faster to make than wood and still stronger
According to the author of the paper, Shu-Hong Yu, the material is as crush-resistant as wood. The final product is a wood-like product that is as resistant to crushing as wood is. The material has certain advantages over wood. Firstly, it is much faster to produce and does not take many years to grow like wood. Secondly, it is water-resistant. Samples of the material socked into a bath of acid and water for thirty days barely affected its strength, unlike regular wood which lost a large percentage of its resilience in the process. The material is also much more difficult to burn than wood and only burns when there is a constant flame, unlike natural wood which catches fire easily.
Pretty cool, isn’t it?