Evolving Materials
Abstract
Material design, discovery, and fabrication approaches are typically based on exploring large parameter spaces, empirically or withtheoretical guidance, or on targeted fabrications if design principles and methods for realization exist. In contrast to abiotic materials, biological organisms solve the challenge of finding the #good enough# solution through diversification of approaches, selection of best performers, and their mutation toward improvement through selection and adaptation. We propose establishing design principles and experimental approaches for enabling materials evolution processes in DNA-programmable systems with functional nano-cargo. Our strategy will involve developing inverse design approaches for materials with a clearly defined correlation between genotype, a set of bonds required for structure assembly, and structural/functional performance. The approach will establish methods for realizing a guided evolution of material, where a genotype of the best performerscan be stored as a physical nanoscale memory for the consequent guided mutation. We will apply this material evolution strategy to create novel mechanical and optical metamaterials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 14, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142512063
Entities
People
- Oleg Gang
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
- United States Navy