0:00:00.650,0:00:02.898 I have a friend in Portugal 0:00:02.898,0:00:05.322 whose grandfather built a vehicle out of a bicycle 0:00:05.322,0:00:08.474 and a washing machine so he could transport his family. 0:00:08.474,0:00:11.018 He did it because he couldn't afford a car, 0:00:11.018,0:00:13.922 but also because he knew how to build one. 0:00:13.922,0:00:17.058 There was a time when we understood how things worked 0:00:17.058,0:00:20.890 and how they were made, so we could build and repair them, 0:00:20.890,0:00:22.017 or at the very least 0:00:22.017,0:00:25.497 make informed decisions about what to buy. 0:00:25.497,0:00:27.889 Many of these do-it-yourself practices 0:00:27.889,0:00:31.098 were lost in the second half of the 20th century. 0:00:31.098,0:00:34.770 But now, the maker community and the open-source model 0:00:34.770,0:00:37.918 are bringing this kind of knowledge about how things work 0:00:37.918,0:00:41.113 and what they're made of back into our lives, 0:00:41.113,0:00:44.137 and I believe we need to take them to the next level, 0:00:44.137,0:00:47.105 to the components things are made of. 0:00:47.105,0:00:49.257 For the most part, we still know 0:00:49.257,0:00:52.779 what traditional materials like paper and textiles are made of 0:00:52.779,0:00:54.808 and how they are produced. 0:00:54.808,0:00:58.871 But now we have these amazing, futuristic composites -- 0:00:58.871,0:01:01.074 plastics that change shape, 0:01:01.074,0:01:03.426 paints that conduct electricity, 0:01:03.426,0:01:07.842 pigments that change color, fabrics that light up. 0:01:07.842,0:01:11.213 Let me show you some examples. 0:01:14.169,0:01:17.885 So conductive ink allows us to paint circuits 0:01:17.885,0:01:19.828 instead of using the traditional 0:01:19.828,0:01:22.426 printed circuit boards or wires. 0:01:22.426,0:01:24.815 In the case of this little example I'm holding, 0:01:24.815,0:01:28.696 we used it to create a touch sensor that reacts to my skin 0:01:28.696,0:01:31.411 by turning on this little light. 0:01:31.411,0:01:34.506 Conductive ink has been used by artists, 0:01:34.506,0:01:37.881 but recent developments indicate that we will soon be able 0:01:37.881,0:01:42.376 to use it in laser printers and pens. 0:01:42.376,0:01:44.706 And this is a sheet of acrylic infused 0:01:44.706,0:01:47.502 with colorless light-diffusing particles. 0:01:47.502,0:01:50.119 What this means is that, while regular acrylic 0:01:50.119,0:01:52.467 only diffuses light around the edges, 0:01:52.467,0:01:55.737 this one illuminates across the entire surface 0:01:55.737,0:01:58.650 when I turn on the lights around it. 0:01:58.650,0:02:00.952 Two of the known applications for this material 0:02:00.952,0:02:06.065 include interior design and multi-touch systems. 0:02:06.065,0:02:08.066 And thermochromic pigments 0:02:08.066,0:02:10.679 change color at a given temperature. 0:02:10.679,0:02:13.465 So I'm going to place this on a hot plate 0:02:13.465,0:02:16.970 that is set to a temperature only slightly higher than ambient 0:02:16.970,0:02:22.816 and you can see what happens. 0:02:22.816,0:02:25.576 So one of the principle applications for this material 0:02:25.576,0:02:28.818 is, amongst other things, in baby bottles, 0:02:28.818,0:02:34.172 so it indicates when the contents are cool enough to drink. 0:02:34.172,0:02:36.928 So these are just a few of what are commonly known 0:02:36.928,0:02:38.837 as smart materials. 0:02:38.837,0:02:41.777 In a few years, they will be in many of the objects 0:02:41.777,0:02:45.136 and technologies we use on a daily basis. 0:02:45.136,0:02:49.350 We may not yet have the flying cars science fiction promised us, 0:02:49.350,0:02:51.719 but we can have walls that change color 0:02:51.719,0:02:53.481 depending on temperature, 0:02:53.481,0:02:55.375 keyboards that roll up, 0:02:55.375,0:02:59.807 and windows that become opaque at the flick of a switch. 0:02:59.807,0:03:02.312 So I'm a social scientist by training, 0:03:02.312,0:03:06.169 so why am I here today talking about smart materials? 0:03:06.169,0:03:08.882 Well first of all, because I am a maker. 0:03:08.882,0:03:11.288 I'm curious about how things work 0:03:11.288,0:03:12.915 and how they are made, 0:03:12.915,0:03:16.223 but also because I believe we should have a deeper understanding 0:03:16.223,0:03:19.044 of the components that make up our world, 0:03:19.044,0:03:21.524 and right now, we don't know enough about 0:03:21.524,0:03:25.213 these high-tech composites our future will be made of. 0:03:25.213,0:03:28.738 Smart materials are hard to obtain in small quantities. 0:03:28.738,0:03:32.778 There's barely any information available on how to use them, 0:03:32.778,0:03:36.675 and very little is said about how they are produced. 0:03:36.675,0:03:39.342 So for now, they exist mostly in this realm 0:03:39.342,0:03:42.054 of trade secrets and patents 0:03:42.054,0:03:46.166 only universities and corporations have access to. 0:03:46.166,0:03:49.015 So a little over three years ago, Kirsty Boyle and I 0:03:49.015,0:03:52.232 started a project we called Open Materials. 0:03:52.232,0:03:54.039 It's a website where we, 0:03:54.039,0:03:56.551 and anyone else who wants to join us, 0:03:56.551,0:03:59.607 share experiments, publish information, 0:03:59.607,0:04:02.807 encourage others to contribute whenever they can, 0:04:02.807,0:04:06.816 and aggregate resources such as research papers 0:04:06.816,0:04:10.156 and tutorials by other makers like ourselves. 0:04:10.156,0:04:12.778 We would like it to become a large, 0:04:12.778,0:04:15.316 collectively generated database 0:04:15.316,0:04:19.609 of do-it-yourself information on smart materials. 0:04:19.609,0:04:21.829 But why should we care 0:04:21.829,0:04:25.592 how smart materials work and what they are made of? 0:04:25.592,0:04:29.770 First of all, because we can't shape what we don't understand, 0:04:29.770,0:04:32.122 and what we don't understand and use 0:04:32.122,0:04:34.330 ends up shaping us. 0:04:34.330,0:04:37.082 The objects we use, the clothes we wear, 0:04:37.082,0:04:40.646 the houses we live in, all have a profound impact 0:04:40.646,0:04:44.229 on our behavior, health and quality of life. 0:04:44.229,0:04:47.370 So if we are to live in a world made of smart materials, 0:04:47.370,0:04:50.729 we should know and understand them. 0:04:50.729,0:04:53.073 Secondly, and just as important, 0:04:53.073,0:04:56.433 innovation has always been fueled by tinkerers. 0:04:56.433,0:04:59.818 So many times, amateurs, not experts, 0:04:59.818,0:05:02.137 have been the inventors and improvers 0:05:02.137,0:05:04.617 of things ranging from mountain bikes 0:05:04.617,0:05:07.929 to semiconductors, personal computers, 0:05:07.929,0:05:10.868 airplanes. 0:05:10.868,0:05:14.897 The biggest challenge is that material science is complex 0:05:14.897,0:05:17.393 and requires expensive equipment. 0:05:17.393,0:05:19.561 But that's not always the case. 0:05:19.561,0:05:23.149 Two scientists at University of Illinois understood this 0:05:23.149,0:05:25.749 when they published a paper on a simpler method 0:05:25.749,0:05:28.169 for making conductive ink. 0:05:28.169,0:05:30.081 Jordan Bunker, who had had 0:05:30.081,0:05:33.041 no experience with chemistry until then, 0:05:33.041,0:05:35.828 read this paper and reproduced the experiment 0:05:35.828,0:05:40.217 at his maker space using only off-the-shelf substances 0:05:40.217,0:05:41.809 and tools. 0:05:41.809,0:05:43.410 He used a toaster oven, 0:05:43.410,0:05:46.376 and he even made his own vortex mixer, 0:05:46.376,0:05:50.411 based on a tutorial by another scientist/maker. 0:05:50.411,0:05:53.163 Jordan then published his results online, 0:05:53.163,0:05:56.651 including all the things he had tried and didn't work, 0:05:56.651,0:05:59.795 so others could study and reproduce it. 0:05:59.795,0:06:02.467 So Jordan's main form of innovation 0:06:02.467,0:06:06.346 was to take an experiment created in a well-equipped lab 0:06:06.346,0:06:07.848 at the university 0:06:07.848,0:06:11.035 and recreate it in a garage in Chicago 0:06:11.035,0:06:15.296 using only cheap materials and tools he made himself. 0:06:15.296,0:06:17.569 And now that he published this work, 0:06:17.569,0:06:19.293 others can pick up where he left 0:06:19.293,0:06:23.837 and devise even simpler processes and improvements. 0:06:23.837,0:06:26.053 Another example I'd like to mention 0:06:26.053,0:06:29.718 is Hannah Perner-Wilson's Kit-of-No-Parts. 0:06:29.718,0:06:32.598 Her project's goal is to highlight 0:06:32.598,0:06:35.070 the expressive qualities of materials 0:06:35.070,0:06:40.094 while focusing on the creativity and skills of the builder. 0:06:40.094,0:06:42.534 Electronics kits are very powerful 0:06:42.534,0:06:45.086 in that they teach us how things work, 0:06:45.086,0:06:48.062 but the constraints inherent in their design 0:06:48.062,0:06:50.222 influence the way we learn. 0:06:50.222,0:06:52.710 So Hannah's approach, on the other hand, 0:06:52.710,0:06:55.926 is to formulate a series of techniques 0:06:55.926,0:06:58.625 for creating unusual objects 0:06:58.625,0:07:01.430 that free us from pre-designed constraints 0:07:01.430,0:07:04.841 by teaching us about the materials themselves. 0:07:04.841,0:07:07.574 So amongst Hannah's many impressive experiments, 0:07:07.574,0:07:09.544 this is one of my favorites. 0:07:09.544,0:07:12.961 ["Paper speakers"] 0:07:12.961,0:07:16.239 What we're seeing here is just a piece of paper 0:07:16.239,0:07:20.681 with some copper tape on it connected to an mp3 player 0:07:20.681,0:07:22.334 and a magnet. 0:07:22.334,0:07:29.983 (Music: "Happy Together") 0:07:32.931,0:07:36.767 So based on the research by Marcelo Coelho from MIT, 0:07:36.767,0:07:39.550 Hannah created a series of paper speakers 0:07:39.550,0:07:41.953 out of a wide range of materials 0:07:41.953,0:07:46.228 from simple copper tape to conductive fabric and ink. 0:07:46.228,0:07:48.964 Just like Jordan and so many other makers, 0:07:48.964,0:07:50.591 Hannah published her recipes 0:07:50.591,0:07:55.725 and allows anyone to copy and reproduce them. 0:07:55.725,0:07:58.929 But paper electronics is one of the most promising branches 0:07:58.929,0:08:00.736 of material science 0:08:00.736,0:08:04.938 in that it allows us to create cheaper and flexible electronics. 0:08:04.938,0:08:07.494 So Hannah's artisanal work, 0:08:07.494,0:08:09.742 and the fact that she shared her findings, 0:08:09.742,0:08:13.562 opens the doors to a series of new possibilities 0:08:13.562,0:08:19.002 that are both aesthetically appealing and innovative. 0:08:19.002,0:08:21.907 So the interesting thing about makers 0:08:21.907,0:08:24.950 is that we create out of passion and curiosity, 0:08:24.950,0:08:27.029 and we are not afraid to fail. 0:08:27.029,0:08:30.917 We often tackle problems from unconventional angles, 0:08:30.917,0:08:33.906 and, in the process, end up discovering alternatives 0:08:33.906,0:08:36.338 or even better ways to do things. 0:08:36.338,0:08:40.106 So the more people experiment with materials, 0:08:40.106,0:08:43.582 the more researchers are willing to share their research, 0:08:43.582,0:08:46.022 and manufacturers their knowledge, 0:08:46.022,0:08:48.862 the better chances we have to create technologies 0:08:48.862,0:08:51.800 that truly serve us all. 0:08:51.800,0:08:54.293 So I feel a bit as Ted Nelson must have 0:08:54.293,0:08:58.004 when, in the early 1970s, he wrote, 0:08:58.004,0:09:01.002 "You must understand computers now." 0:09:01.002,0:09:04.856 Back then, computers were these large mainframes 0:09:04.856,0:09:06.986 only scientists cared about, 0:09:06.986,0:09:09.706 and no one dreamed of even having one at home. 0:09:09.706,0:09:12.682 So it's a little strange that I'm standing here and saying, 0:09:12.682,0:09:15.722 "You must understand smart materials now." 0:09:15.722,0:09:19.458 Just keep in mind that acquiring preemptive knowledge 0:09:19.458,0:09:21.722 about emerging technologies 0:09:21.722,0:09:24.119 is the best way to ensure that we have a say 0:09:24.119,0:09:26.282 in the making of our future. 0:09:26.282,0:09:28.753 Thank you. 0:09:28.753,0:09:32.753 (Applause)