When you were a kid you probably built things — lego spaceships, paper airplanes, stick forts, origami cranes. Why? Because it was fun. Then maybe as you got older you started making more complex, more elegant things. But I’m guessing that now(as long as you’re not an engineer), you’re probably not building things every day. Whatever impulse inspired you initially has withered away.

While as you grow older you have less time (and some say less creativity), the real reason we stop building is boredom. Many people simply do not enjoy spending hours meticulously putting something together.
But that’s not true! I like to. And shouldn’t art or programming or a business plan count as putting something together? People like those things and spend hours on them!
Yes, that’s true. But what if you painted one piece perfectly … and then you were told to make exactly the same thing equally as perfectly … and when you finished you had to make another … and another … and another …
Yet that’s exactly the task that faces some researchers in the fields of nanotechnology and programmable materials. So to solve this problem of meticulous repetition, the ultimately, we need to combine the two fields.
First what are nanotechnology and programmable materials?
Nanotechnology
The prefix nano means very small, as in 10-⁹ meters small. For reference a strand of DNA is 2.5 nm and a human hair is about 100,000 nm wide!
So in the field of nanotech, researchers are building things on the nanoscale — less than 100 nm. To be considered a nonmaterial, it only needs to be on the nano scale in one dimension, so you could have a nano cube, a nano rod, or a nano plane.
And this matters because …
Things at the nano scale behave very differently from their macro forms due to quantum effects. They exhibit different colors, strengths, conductivity, etc. Being able to manipulate individual atoms would give you ultimate control over its properties.
Some examples of nanotech
- Graphene — Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in a hexagonal lattice, it’s like if you drew a line with your pencil and then repeatedly pulled of layers of carbon 1 atom thick. Each of those layers is graphene — and it’s 200 times stronger than steel! It also conducts heat and electricity well, and it is transparent.
- Electronics — Nanotech can be used to make smaller, better transistors as well as improve data storage.
- Drug delivery — Medications stored in little bots can be ingested/injected and treat diseases. They can also be equipped with a camera to provide a live feed or a tiny knife to take tissue samples.
But how? Researchers use scanning probe microscopy to image and manipulate nanomaterials. Scanning probe microscopes have a sharp tip that is moved carefully along the surface of the material. When the tip gets close to the material, it is deflected due to chemical bonds, electrostatic, or magnetic forces. The measured deflection can be used to render a digital image. By changing the currents running through the probe, it can also be used to pick up and move individual atoms.
But for some pretty obvious reasons this is really hard, even with this technology. I mean, manipulating individual atoms?!
This is where programmable materials comes in!
Programmable Materials
Programmable materials are … materials that are programmed. The idea is to use materials like carbon fibers, or other rubbers or plastics, print them flat, and then have them self assemble into a 3d shape. These materials have properties such that when exposed to heat, water currents, voltage, etc. they respond in a “pre programmed” way.
This is the general idea, but there are so many different subsections of programmable materials.
- “Normal” materials — No, they’re definitely not normal, but their properties sort of occur in nature. This is like the explanation above. It can be useful for shipping because you could send something flat and have it assemble itself in their home.
- Metamaterials — Artificial composites that do not react in a natural way. One example is a material that can have its index of refraction tuned at each particular point, effectively creating a cloaking device.
- Electropermanent magnets — These magnets contain two magnets, a magnetically hard one and a soft one. When they have opposite directions, the net magnetic field is 0; when they are aligned, the material becomes magnetized. This is useful for …
- Self-building modular robots — As in a group of robots that work together to build a structure. They are able to adapt to the environmental situation, self repair, and are incredibly flexible so they can be used repeatedly for different solutions.
- Claytronics — This creates a swarm of nanoscale robots (claytronic “atoms” → catoms), all the same, that can assemble themselves into anything. They would be able to move around and communicate electrostatically with the other catoms.
There are so many applications! Materials will self assemble from 2d to 3d, little robots will be able to work together to execute a task. The catoms would actually be able to become an object: your couch could be made of catoms would be able to transition from couch to bed to dining table, in the idea of the “fog”, catoms would be floating around everywhere and you would just be able to say “hammer” and one would form, and then separate when you were done!
The intersection between nanotech and programmable materials!
Nanotech has so many possibilities, but currently we’re limited by our ability to create and manipulate the nanomaterials. Conveniently, the wonders of programmable materials is that they can self assemble or create robots that can adapt to execute tasks. So if you can self assemble your nanomaterials or pass that job on to self-assembly bots, then …
And, most mind blowing is the last possibility listed under programmable materials. Claytronics is the perfect intersection and current pinnacle of both fields: tiny artificial “atoms” that can form into whatever you want, literally anything, and then separate when you’re done!!
How is that not insane!?
Key Takeaways:
- Nanotech is the field of little tiny things and manipulating them. It can be used to create better materials, electronics, and medicine. But it’s hard and time consuming.
- Programmable materials is the field of materials that can self form from 2d to 3d in response to external stimuli. It also includes robot swarms that can self assemble and work together.
- So when you combine them … 💥
- And using claytronics, catoms can morph into anything
So now your origami cranes might be the size of a few DNA strands and be able to fold itself :)
Hope you enjoyed reading this article! Leave a comment below or email me at kiranamak@gmail.com if you’re interested in talking!
