Lockheed Martin will develop new material for optical devices using microbes

Development will be carried out on a five-yearcontract with the US government, its amount will be $ 10 million. The project is to create new optical materials using microorganisms that will protect the device from ultraviolet rays and other interference and increase the accuracy of their work.

Now biodesign, opened in the 1970s,used in medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, as well as in the production of new durable materials - for example, a synthetic analogue of spider silk. Lockheed Martin plans to expand the scope of technology to the development of materials for optical devices, the company said.

Man can not yet produce coatings forultra-precise optical devices, so we decided to turn to nature for help. The use of biological self-assembling materials can be a sustainable and cheap way to produce new materials - more efficient than their artificial manufacture. The maturity of materials bio-design technology is still low, and our five-year study will significantly advance this area.