Skylar Tibbits Knihy

"A short, provocative manifesto for the programmable materials revolution from the visionary founder of MIT's Self-Assembly Lab"--

Focusing on the three essential components of Self-Assembly, this book features interviews with industry practitioners and showcases relevant research projects. It offers an insightful exploration of innovative future technologies in construction and self-transforming materials, providing readers with a comprehensive introduction to these groundbreaking developments.

The past few decades brought a revolution in computer software and hardware; today we are on the cusp of a materials revolution. If yesterday we programmed computers and other machines, today we program matter itself. This has created new capabilities in design, computing, and fabrication, which allow us to program proteins and bacteria, to generate self-transforming wood products and architectural details, and to create clothing from intelligent textiles that grow themselves. This book offers essays and sample projects from the front lines of the emerging field of active matter. Active matter and programmable materials are at the intersection of science, art, design, and engineering, with applications in fields from biology and computer science to architecture and fashion.