abstract
Humanity has long sought inspiration from nature to innovate materials and devices. As science advances, nature-inspired materials are becoming part of our lives. Animate materials, characterized by their activity, adaptability, and autonomy, emulate properties of living systems. While only biological materials fully embody these principles, artificial versions are advancing rapidly, promising transformative impacts in the circular economy, health and climate resilience within a generation. This roadmap presents authoritative perspectives on animate materials across different disciplines and scales, highlighting their interdisciplinary nature and potential applications in diverse fields including nanotechnology, robotics and the built environment. It underscores the need for concerted efforts to address shared challenges such as complexity management, scalability, evolvability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical and environmental considerations. The framework defined by classifying materials based on their level of animacy can guide this emerging field to encourage cooperation and responsible development. By unravelling the mysteries of living matter and leveraging its principles, we can design materials and systems that will transform our world in a more sustainable manner.
keywords
ON-A-CHIP; BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS; ACTIVE PARTICLES; STEM-CELLS; SOFT; TRANSPORT; ROBOTS; FABRICATION; PROGRESS; NETWORK
subject category
Physics
authors
Volpe, G; Araújo, NAM; Guix, M; Miodownik, M; Martin, N; Alvarez, L; Simmchen, J; Leonardo, RD; Pellicciotta, N; Martinet, Q; Palacci, J; Ng, WK; Saxena, D; Sapienza, R; Nadine, S; Mano, JF; Mahdavi, R; Adiels, CB; Forth, J; Santangelo, C; Palagi, S; Seok, JM; Webster-Wood, VA; Wang, SH; Yao, LN; Aghakhani, A; Barois, T; Kellay, H; Coulais, C; van Hecke, M; Pierce, CJ; Wang, TY; Chong, BX; Goldman, D; Reina, A; Trianni, V; Volpe, G; Beckett, R; Nair, SP; Armstrong, R
our authors
João Mano
Full professor
Sara Nadine
Junior Researcheracknowledgements
Living Architecture is Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Future Emerging Technologies Open programme (2016-2019) Grant Agreement 686585 a consortium of 6 collaborating institutions-Newcastle University, University of Trento, University of the West of England, Spanish National Research Council, Explora Biotech and Liquifer Systems Group.The Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment (ALICE) project is funded by an EU Innovation Award for the development of a bio-digital 'brick' prototype, a collaboration between Newcastle University, Translating Nature, and the University of the West of England (2019-2021) under EU Grant Agreement No. 851246.Microbial Hydroponics: Circular Sustainable Electrobiosynthesis (Mi-Hy) is Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement Number 101114746, which is a collaboration between Beneficiaries, KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Southampton (UK), SONY Computer Science Laboratory (France), BioFaction KG (Austria), Spanish National Research Council (Spain), and Associated Partners, the University of the West of England (UK) and University of Southampton (UK). Mi-Hy is also supported through the interdisciplinary KU Leuven Institute for Cultural Heritage (HERKUL).