1. “…chi ha provato il volo, camminerà guardando il cielo”
Towards Stem Materials:
A new generation of bio-inspired materials: technological and scientific challenges
“…chi ha provato il volo,
camminerà guardando il cielo”
“…Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward”
Pier Francesco Moretti
ULB, Brussels - 25 June 2019

2. Why and how: the back-casting foresight What (do we expect)
Rationale
Why and how: the back-casting foresight
What (do we expect)
What (do we know)
What (do we need to solve)

3. The different approaches of foresight

4. Building the path towards the future
Where are we going? vs Where do we want to go?
BUILDING = backcasting
ADAPTING = forecasting

5. What we expect from Materials
FOOD
ENERGY
MATERIALS
as enablers
HEALTH
WATER

6. Building the path towards the future: if in 1998….
Facebook
Smart phone
DNA sequencing
1st CRISPR
1 quantum message
First human transplant of stem cell 2017
1st animal cloning
Amazon e-commerce
Parrot drone
3d-printing
Highway-capable electric vehicle
First Nanomotor
Laser induced underwater com
AKIDA neuromorphic chip
Non-invasive brain-computer interface 1999
AI4reason
What “scientific” breakthrough?
Galvani, Volta, Marconi, Pasteur, Einstein, Fermi, Marie-Curie……
From unpredictability of discoveries
to identification of the right questions!

7. What do we expect for next generation of materials
The dream
A clue
Multi-Functionality +
sustainability
endurance
[performance]
Organisms!
with limited number of primary components and
chemical bonds, organized in complex systems
capable to adapt to diversified environments.
The visionary proposal
Stem Materials:
use of primitive units which, even if not able to differentiate spontaneously in several other types, undergo a process of transformation aimed to make them capable of adapt to specific requirements.
Main questions:
1) Are there primitive units for materials?
2) Can we address functions to the units?
3) Can be these units assembled/transformed to adapt?

8. Is this science fiction?
First scoping workshop, March 2017:
what do we know or need to know better
Material Science:
the genetic code
for materials
Chemical Synthetic Biology:
from information
to the adapting to the exposome
10 top-scientists: 3 ERC grantees et al.
(Calarco, Vulpiani, Marzari, Luisi…)

9. What do we need to address
The technological and scientific challenges:
NON-EQUILIBRIUM
SYSTEMIC APPROACH
CONTEXT DEPENDENCY
MULTI-SCALE
SUSTAINABILITY
MACHINE LEARNING
COGNITION
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
QUASI-BIO
STRUCTURE
ASSEMBLING
INTEGRATION

10. 1) to achieve a general and breakthrough
Different paths
While experiments and analogies seem to drive the advances in these researches, we have two options:
1) to achieve a general and breakthrough
mathematical framework for primitive units,
as a sort of ribosome of Materials, and their combinations and/or
2) an accurate and flexible empirical
framework to satisfy any request for
functionality and performance of materials.
foresight.cnr.it/working-groups/wg-materials

11. Multi-cross-disciplinarity
Second face-to-face workshop, December 2018:
20 top-scentists from KR, CH, PT, DE, NL, IT…how to proceed.
The Materials' Genetic code
Living Materials systems
Non-equilibrium of nanostructures
The role of chaos and rhythms in order and functioning
A whole-cell computational model: phenotype vs genotype
…and: topology, neuromorphic circuits, 4D materials, epigenetics, quantum mechanics.

12. What do we need to focus on
INTERFACES
&
Non-equilibr.
Space-time
organization
& dynamics
NETWORKS
&
SCALES
Transport/
meaning of
info/energy
multi-states
systems

13. How to “focus” Physics Model 1 Model 2 … Model n Medicine Material
Science
Chemistry
Physics
Sociology
Biology
Maths
Model 1
Model 2 …
Model n
Experiment 1
Experiment 2 …
Experiment m

14. The ABraCAdabra A C B
Can we design, test, learn?

15. From a market which does not exist to an integration of ideas”
KEY MESSAGES
From
“Internet OF Things” to
“Internet IN Things”
From
“From ideas to market” to
From a market which does not exist
to an integration of ideas”

16. It is not fiction: organisms exist!