Can we make things that make themselves?

Name: Can we make things that make themselves?
Uploaded: 2011-09-01T15:29:02Z
Duration: 5 min 47 s
Description: MIT researcher Skylar Tibbits works on self-assembly -- the idea that instead of building something (a chair, a skyscraper), we can create materials that build themselves, much the way a strand of DNA zips itself together. It's a big concept at early stages; Tibbits shows us three in-the-lab projects that hint at what a self-assembling future might look like.

1,122,149 views|

Skylar Tibbits |

TED2011

• February 2011

MIT researcher Skylar Tibbits works on self-assembly -- the idea that instead of building something (a chair, a skyscraper), we can create materials that build themselves, much the way a strand of DNA zips itself together. It's a big concept at early stages; Tibbits shows us three in-the-lab projects that hint at what a self-assembling future might look like.

technology
design
TED Fellows

Can we make things that make themselves?

Watch next