This text describes how scientists are inventing thousands of materials, ranging from synthetic skin, blood and bone, to substances that repair themselves and adapt to their environment. It outlines how newly-invented materials will transform our lives in the 21st century.

This text describes how scientists are inventing thousands of materials, ranging from synthetic skin, blood and bone, to substances that repair themselves and adapt to their environment, that swell and flex like muscles, that repel any ink and paint, and that capture and store the energy from the Sun. It shows that this is being accomplished because materials are being designed for particular applications, rather than being discovered in nature or by haphazard experimentation. Linking insights from chemistry, biology and physics, with those from engineering, the book outlines the various areas in which newly-invented materials will transform our lives in the 21st century. The chapters provide vignettes from a broad range of selected areas of materials science and can be read as separate essays. The subjects include: photonic materials; materials for information storage; smart materials; biomaterials; biomedical materials; materials for clean energy; porous materials; diamond and hard materials; polymers; and surfaces and interfaces.