Ecosystems

Morphing Matter Learning From Dynamic Balance Systems

Conceptual Framing

The Morphing Matter Lab develops transformative and adaptive materials in order to realize the fictional future in the present. Nature, and the dynamic, adaptive systems that make it up, provide one of our primary sources of inspiration. This article is part of a series, which aims to wonder how the intricacy of natural materials could one day become a part of our daily lives. The concept flow:

{ nature’s teaching > learning, morphing matter > future technology }

Let’s think about two systems which dynamically remodel themselves: human bones and coral reefs. At first, these two structures might seem very different, but there is surprising overlap. Both are macro-structures, whose form is an ever shifting, emergent property of smaller organisms which live in relation to the larger component. What is more, the super-structure is dynamically re-written according to the will of of the smaller beings. Human bones respond to repeated pressure, constantly trimming away mass where it is not needed and reinforcing areas which are heavily used. Coral reefs are similarly remodeled due to the constant action of smaller creatures, particularly Parrotfish and Sea Urchins. The feeding of these organisms drives growth over time, producing fantastic columns and spires of coral. Both of these materials exhibit a kind of morphing over long spans of time. Although they do not morph or transform in the moment, the slow aggregation of tiny shifts adds up to a remarkable morphing behavior which lives at a speed too slow for humans to perceive unless they consider carefully.

Coral Reef Growth: How Parrotfish and Hurricanes Sculpt the Colony Form Across Time

Coral is a delightful, small polyp creature which excretes a calcium carbonate cup around itself, and hosts algae in its flesh which symbiotically produce nourishment directly from the sunlight. With the coral animal feeding mechanically at night, and the algae photosynthesizing during the day, this symbiote is able to produce enough energy to survive and thrive. Millions of these tiny animals live together in vast colonies of calcium carbonate architecture. But how do the coral spires and colonies actually take shape? Each animal only lives in one place, and spawns periodically throughout its life, so the architecture of the colony can only be reshaped through the death of existing coral bodies, or the colonization of new territories.

Labridae or Parrotfish are a large, diverse family of fish with hard beaks that enable them to scrape the surface of coral reefs as they feed. Individual Parrotfish generally find a small patch of coral to graze on and can be territorial in defending this pasture. They scrape macroalgae of the surface of the coral to eat, which has the benefit of re-exposing coral individuals who are hidden under algae mats. This causes the coral to be exposed to more sunlight, which makes them healthier [2]. Parrotfish have an additional, more complex effect on the reef: they can gauge areas of the structure bare which leaves them open for coral colonization. Thus, over time, the feeding behavior of the Parrotfish encourages coral colonization and growth [1] [3].

If the grazing behaviors of Parrotfish are the positive, causing reef structures to form across great lengths of time, hurricanes are a destructive force which nonetheless help to grow the reef. Sedimentary researchers demonstrate that the entire macro-architecture of the reef is actually driven by rare massive storm events [4]. As storms approach the coral-complex, they smash and destroy the living coral in their path, in doing so however, they distribute a a layer of rubble across the entire interior of the reef spreading out to the outlying regions. In the time between large storm events, this coral rubble is easily recolonized and re-integrated into the coral-architecture creating a dense interior core which owes its presence to the destructive force of hurricanes and other large storms.

Human Bones: How Cellular Components Adapt the Skeleton to An Optimal Shape for Weight Bearing

There are three significant categories of bone cell for the argument of this piece: osteocytes, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts. Osteoblasts catalyze the formation of new bone material, osteoclasts drive the resorption of bone, and osteocytes form the matrix of bone while performing a mechanosensory function [5]. Setting aside the complexities of organ formation, 95% of mature bone is made of osteocytes with many radiating spindles connecting to other osteocytes in a microporous network which forms the basic substratum of bone tissue. These cells, besides their structural function, serve a temporal purpose: they sense and signal information about the mechanical load on the tissue that they are part of which drives the action of the two aforementioned cell types. Osteocytes are connected to each other in a manner which is reminiscent of central nervous system cells, and when a bone has either compressive or tensile force applied to it, the osteocytes within that structure signal to the osteoblasts and osteoclasts associated with it to become more active.

An osteocyte is in fact a modified and entombed version of a much more active cell called an osteoblast. The osteoblast directs the formation and strengthening of new bone, specifically in the area and orientation from which it receives a signal. This is how the interior of the human femur head can contain such delicately matrixed structures which perfectly support the weight of the upper body. Oppositionally, the osteoclast, when activated drives bone tissue resorption [5]. The activity of both of these cells combined is called bone remodeling, a process in which structural bone tissue is transferred to the areas and pathways where it is needed most [6]. What determines the ‘need’ here is the action of weight bearing which produces tensile or compressive stress. In other words, this finely balanced group of cells accomplishes the task of creating bone tissue precisely along the pathways where a need for bone tissue is indicated by daily usage patterns.

Ideas

• building > dynamic structure change > depending on location + amount of people > particle jamming
• fully dynamic morphing home [ideation session]
• structural remodeling chair
• emotional content in materials that still maintain the function
• cuddling adaptation

1. Lewis, Sara M. The role of herbivorous fishes in the organization of a Caribbean reef community. Ecological Monographs 56.3 (1986): 183–200.
2. Carlson, Peter et al. Causes and effects of grazing behavior by large, excavating parrotfishes on coral reefs. UCSB Grant Ongoing MSII-CA32P-8–448750–57919
3. Nanami, Atsushi. Parrotfish grazing ability: interspecific differences in relation to jaw-lever mechanics and relative weight of adductor mandibulae on an Okinawan coral reef. PeerJ 4 (2016): e2425.
4. Blanchon, Paul, Brian Jones, and William Kalbfleisch. Anatomy of a fringing reef around Grand Cayman; storm rubble, not coral framework. Journal of Sedimentary Research 67.1 (1997): 1–16.
5. Crockett, Julie C., et al. Bone remodelling at a glance. J Cell Sci 124.7 (2011): 991–998.
6. O’connor, J. A., L. E. Lanyon, and H. MacFie. The influence of strain rate on adaptive bone remodelling. Journal of biomechanics 15.10 (1982): 767–781.
7. Burr, David B., and Maxime A. Gallant. Bone remodelling in osteoarthritis. Nature Reviews Rheumatology 8.11 (2012): 665.