<![CDATA[🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice.]]>🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice.

Ming Dynasty masons (1368-1644) mixed boiled sticky rice soup into their lime mortar. The result was a tough, flexible, water-resistant binder that has held brick sections together for around 600 years.

The chemistry: sticky rice is packed with amylopectin, a complex starch. In 2010, chemists led by Bingjian Zhang at Zhejiang University found that amylopectin acts as a template, steering calcium carbonate crystals into a dense, interlocking structure instead of large brittle chunks.

That compact microstructure is why some wall sections have shrugged off earthquakes and still keep weeds out of the seams centuries later.

Read more:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ar9001944
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/100608-sticky-rice-mortar-china-science
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100530093704.htm

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/90f0bc43-363f-45db-969f-e10cd02b0985/the-secret-ingredient-holding-the-great-wall-of-china-together-is-sticky-rice.RSS for NodeFri, 11 Sep 2026 18:05:44 GMTWed, 02 Sep 2026 12:35:41 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:52:48 GMT]]>@filobus @jcrabapple
They lived and died by this, you know?

Much like learning that agrarian societies managed the land and soil carefully and deliberately, and in the few documented cases we have, were getting yields that would make most modern industrial farmers blush.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/Brett_E_Carlock/statuses/117205550297708340https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/Brett_E_Carlock/statuses/117205550297708340Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:52:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:51:48 GMT]]>@jcrabapple Ah yes, exactly why I need to take a fucking razor to my stove when I let the pot of rice over-boil some water, haha.

This is some seriously cool research, and once again goes to prove that humans in the past were not stupid at all.

This was a deliberate, considered, researched, effort to improve their engineering practices, not an accident. That is smart as fuck.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/Brett_E_Carlock/statuses/117205546355791105https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/Brett_E_Carlock/statuses/117205546355791105Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:51:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:08:04 GMT]]>@jcrabapple omg. I'll never fall apart! (Sticky rice is my favorite kind of rice.)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/kimlockhartga/statuses/117204430651065504https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/kimlockhartga/statuses/117204430651065504Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:08:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:52:22 GMT]]>@jcrabapple I knew it was sticky but I didn't know it was 600 years sticky

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/aburka/statuses/117204132992264834https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/aburka/statuses/117204132992264834Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:52:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:08:46 GMT]]>@jcrabapple fascinating 🤔

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ohai.social/users/redsad/statuses/117203961533206140https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ohai.social/users/redsad/statuses/117203961533206140Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:08:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Wed, 02 Sep 2026 21:47:53 GMT]]>@jcrabapple interesting how ancient cultures had advanced masonry technologies
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0958946524000568
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_concrete

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/filobus/statuses/117203643491496868https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/filobus/statuses/117203643491496868Wed, 02 Sep 2026 21:47:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:57:41 GMT]]>@jcrabapple

Hmmmm.
What's a bit of amylopectin going to do to my limewash?

And is this related to the (?) limewash recipes that had (?) wheat flour glue added?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/skua/statuses/117201558665960621https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/skua/statuses/117201558665960621Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:57:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to 🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. on Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:39:24 GMT]]>@jcrabapple
"Dude, what are you doing with my lunch?"
"Trust me bro, rice is the key to strong walls"

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fouroclockfarms.club/users/MontgomeryGator/statuses/117201486788494735https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fouroclockfarms.club/users/MontgomeryGator/statuses/117201486788494735Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:39:24 GMT