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I have a friend in Portugal

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whose grandfather built a vehicle out of a bicycle

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and a washing machine so he could transport his family.

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He did it because he couldn't afford a car,

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but also because he knew how to build one.

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There was a time when we understood how things worked

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and how they were made, so we could build and repair them,

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or at the very least

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make informed decisions about what to buy.

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Many of these do-it-yourself practices

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were lost in the second half of the 20th century.

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But now, the maker community and the open-source model

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are bringing this kind of knowledge about how things work

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and what they're made of back into our lives,

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and I believe we need to take them to the next level,

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to the components things are made of.

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For the most part, we still know

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what traditional materials like paper and textiles are made of

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and how they are produced.

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But now we have these amazing, futuristic composites --

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plastics that change shape,

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paints that conduct electricity,

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pigments that change color, fabrics that light up.

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Let me show you some examples.

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So conductive ink allows us to paint circuits

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instead of using the traditional

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printed circuit boards or wires.

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In the case of this little example I'm holding,

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we used it to create a touch sensor that reacts to my skin

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by turning on this little light.

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Conductive ink has been used by artists,

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but recent developments indicate that we will soon be able

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to use it in laser printers and pens.

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And this is a sheet of acrylic infused

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with colorless light-diffusing particles.

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What this means is that, while regular acrylic

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only diffuses light around the edges,

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this one illuminates across the entire surface

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when I turn on the lights around it.

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Two of the known applications for this material

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include interior design and multi-touch systems.

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And thermochromic pigments

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change color at a given temperature.

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So I'm going to place this on a hot plate

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that is set to a temperature only slightly higher than ambient

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and you can see what happens.

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So one of the principle applications for this material

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is, amongst other things, in baby bottles,

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so it indicates when the contents are cool enough to drink.

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So these are just a few of what are commonly known

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as smart materials.

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In a few years, they will be in many of the objects

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and technologies we use on a daily basis.

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We may not yet have the flying cars science fiction promised us,

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but we can have walls that change color

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depending on temperature,

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keyboards that roll up,

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and windows that become opaque at the flick of a switch.

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So I'm a social scientist by training,

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so why am I here today talking about smart materials?

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Well first of all, because I am a maker.

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I'm curious about how things work

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and how they are made,

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but also because I believe we should have a deeper understanding

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of the components that make up our world,

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and right now, we don't know enough about

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these high-tech composites our future will be made of.

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Smart materials are hard to obtain in small quantities.

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There's barely any information available on how to use them,

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and very little is said about how they are produced.

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So for now, they exist mostly in this realm

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of trade secrets and patents

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only universities and corporations have access to.

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So a little over three years ago, Kirsty Boyle and I

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started a project we called Open Materials.

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It's a website where we,

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and anyone else who wants to join us,

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share experiments, publish information,

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encourage others to contribute whenever they can,

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and aggregate resources such as research papers

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and tutorials by other makers like ourselves.

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We would like it to become a large,

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collectively generated database

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of do-it-yourself information on smart materials.

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But why should we care

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how smart materials work and what they are made of?

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First of all, because we can't shape what we don't understand,

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and what we don't understand and use

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ends up shaping us.

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The objects we use, the clothes we wear,

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the houses we live in, all have a profound impact

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on our behavior, health and quality of life.

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So if we are to live in a world made of smart materials,

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we should know and understand them.

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Secondly, and just as important,

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innovation has always been fueled by tinkerers.

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So many times, amateurs, not experts,

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have been the inventors and improvers

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of things ranging from mountain bikes

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to semiconductors, personal computers,

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airplanes.

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The biggest challenge is that material science is complex

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and requires expensive equipment.

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But that's not always the case.

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Two scientists at University of Illinois understood this

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when they published a paper on a simpler method

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for making conductive ink.

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Jordan Bunker, who had had

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no experience with chemistry until then,

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read this paper and reproduced the experiment

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at his maker space using only off-the-shelf substances

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and tools.

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He used a toaster oven,

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and he even made his own vortex mixer,

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based on a tutorial by another scientist/maker.

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Jordan then published his results online,

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including all the things he had tried and didn't work,

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so others could study and reproduce it.

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So Jordan's main form of innovation

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was to take an experiment created in a well-equipped lab

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at the university

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and recreate it in a garage in Chicago

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using only cheap materials and tools he made himself.

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And now that he published this work,

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others can pick up where he left

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and devise even simpler processes and improvements.

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Another example I'd like to mention

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is Hannah Perner-Wilson's Kit-of-No-Parts.

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Her project's goal is to highlight

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the expressive qualities of materials

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while focusing on the creativity and skills of the builder.

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Electronics kits are very powerful

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in that they teach us how things work,

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but the constraints inherent in their design

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influence the way we learn.

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So Hannah's approach, on the other hand,

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is to formulate a series of techniques

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for creating unusual objects

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that free us from pre-designed constraints

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by teaching us about the materials themselves.

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So amongst Hannah's many impressive experiments,

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this is one of my favorites.

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["Paper speakers"]

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What we're seeing here is just a piece of paper

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with some copper tape on it connected to an mp3 player

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and a magnet.

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(Music: "Happy Together")

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So based on the research by Marcelo Coelho from MIT,

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Hannah created a series of paper speakers

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out of a wide range of materials

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from simple copper tape to conductive fabric and ink.

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Just like Jordan and so many other makers,

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Hannah published her recipes

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and allows anyone to copy and reproduce them.

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But paper electronics is one of the most promising branches

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of material science

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in that it allows us to create cheaper and flexible electronics.

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So Hannah's artisanal work,

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and the fact that she shared her findings,

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opens the doors to a series of new possibilities

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that are both aesthetically appealing and innovative.

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So the interesting thing about makers

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is that we create out of passion and curiosity,

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and we are not afraid to fail.

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We often tackle problems from unconventional angles,

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and, in the process, end up discovering alternatives

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or even better ways to do things.

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So the more people experiment with materials,

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the more researchers are willing to share their research,

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and manufacturers their knowledge,

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the better chances we have to create technologies

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that truly serve us all.

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So I feel a bit as Ted Nelson must have

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when, in the early 1970s, he wrote,

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"You must understand computers now."

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Back then, computers were these large mainframes

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only scientists cared about,

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and no one dreamed of even having one at home.

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So it's a little strange that I'm standing here and saying,

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"You must understand smart materials now."

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Just keep in mind that acquiring preemptive knowledge

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about emerging technologies

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is the best way to ensure that we have a say

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in the making of our future.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)