In the soft soil of Vietnam’s Red River Delta, one can often see a peculiar sight — countless slender bamboo poles are densely driven into the muddy ground like toothpicks. In fact, this is a traditional method for building house foundations. Because the local soil is moist and loose, the bamboo piles provide strong support to the otherwise unstable silt layer. What’s even more remarkable is that in the oxygen-poor underground environment, the bamboo doesn’t rot; instead, it hardens over time an