Roman concrete research (Admir Masic, MIT civil)

Tom cites Masic's work as part of the longer arc of materials people studying Roman concrete for 2000 years. Volcanic ash as key constituent.

In most places. For example, Hawaii has soft volcanic soil. But you're right. It turns out one of the biggest costs in producing concrete is the energy cost of taking the calcium carbonate and heating it up to a thousand degrees centigrade, burning off the CO2, and making burnt lime, which is calcium oxide, which you mix with water to get calcium hydroxide, which with the aluminates and silicates is concrete. If you use some types of volcanic ash, you get Roman concrete, which is some of the best in the world. Professor Admir Masic in civil is studying Roman concrete. But people have been studying it for 2,000 years. It's still some of the best concrete in the world, in part because of the other things they add to it. Concrete chemistry is too complex for most materials scientists. That's why the civil engineers do it. They know no chemistry, so they do it, okay.