Autonomous materials from biomimicry
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Introduction Imagine a world where oil pipelines detect and seal cracks before leaking into the environment, potholes refill themselves, and bridges signal their fatigue and avoid collapsing. We envision these solutions to be made from materials—not robots—that can sense structural, mechanical, or chemical problems, and ultimately, report and repair infrastructure. These futuristic ideas all rely on materials that are in some way “autonomous.” Autonomous materials will need to sense their surroundings, couple energy-driven elements to respond by creating force and performing work, and then halt these changes when sensing that the job is done. Where can we start to learn the fundamental governing principles behind such autonomous materials of the future? Luckily, biology has already engineered autonomous systems that can sense, compute, and react to stimuli. Biological systems and materials perform these functions through cascading chemical reactions linking energy-utilizing components. The current designs that can be learned from a myriad of biological systems around us have developed from countless trial-anderror attempts as the organisms themselves have evolved. While future technological demands will require such autonomous, active materials, humans currently have no capability to design, engineer, or build similar nonequilibrium, multicomponent systems. We will forever be at an impasse in materials engineering and technology until we determine the fundamental scientific principles underlying how biological
systems bridge molecular and macroscopic length scales and use random molecular components and processes to create coherent material motion and work.
Machines made from machines One fundamental principle that we can already glean from our current understanding of biological systems is that biological entities are machines composed of other machines. This concept was first proposed by Leibniz in the 18th century1 and revived in a recent review from Needleman and Dogic.2 Think of the human body (Figure 1). It is a machine that is capable of producing large-scale work, such as lifting a heavy load. Inside of the body are smaller machines called organs and muscles. Each of these machines performs a function that helps the larger organism/machine to function. These organs are made from smaller machines called cells that come together to make the tissues and structures of the organs. These individual cells are each self-replicating machines that produce work to keep the tissue together, and can heal and repair tissues through cell motility or cell division to create more tissue. Within cells, the smaller machines that help the cell perform its functions are called organelles and macromolecular complexes. These intracellular machines are composed of enzymes, which are nanoscale machines that can perform work by creating forces from nanometer to micrometer scales. These enzymes are themselves soft materials, a topic which is discussed in the article by Zocchi3 in this issue of MRS Bulletin.
Jennifer L. Ross, Departm
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