RP356 Building the Future

 RP356 Building the Future

Three-dimensional printing, which was, not too long ago, a part of science fiction, is now used practically everywhere—from the aerospace industry, to medicine and education. This amazing technology, which allows anyone to print an entire object, is now yesterday's news. The next big thing in printing, however, is on the horizon. How is it different from 3-D printing? Well, it not only uses the three dimensions of space but also the fourth dimension—time.
Four-dimensional printing involves printing materials that are able to change over time in reaction to different outside stimuli—for example, temperature, water, or air pressure. Why is this useful? Construction is, in fact, an incredibly inefficient industry. It takes a long time to assemble a piece of furniture, build a house, or lay down a water pipe. If the environment changes, damage occurs, or you're not happy with how your work looks, you have to start all over again. Rather than adapting or changing, building materials tend to stay the same shape—but not 4-D printed materials. These materials are essentially programmable. Think self-assembling furniture, self-fixing water pipes, even self-reconfiguring buildings that can take measures against natural disasters. Four-dimensional printing even allows us to take construction into outer space, where the hostile environment makes traditional construction incredibly problematic. Think of 4-D printed materials as robots, just without wires or electricity. Who knows, in the future we may even be able to print material capable of conscious thought!
So where did the idea for this kind of adaptable material come from? As with most things, Mother Nature got there first. DNA, RNA, and proteins, which make life possible and are found in all of our bodies, are essentially long strings of self-reconfiguring material. They can fold themselves, fix themselves, replicate themselves, and do so with little energy and no mistakes.
The trick is to translate those attributes from the micro world of molecules into the macro world of construction. Of course, that's easier said than done. But rest assured that some of the best material scientists in the world are working on it. Soon enough, cities won't need us to build them they'll build themselves.