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Self-assembly: The power of organizing the unorganized - Skylar Tibbits

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From something as familiar as our bodies to things vast as the formation of galaxies, we can observe the process of self-assembly, or when unordered parts come together in an organized structure. Skylar Tibbits explains how we see self-assembly at work in biology and chemistry -- and even in our future technologies.

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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Director Andy London
  • Artist Cindy Tan
  • Animator Santiago Peralta
  • Educator Skylar Tibbits
  • Narrator Skylar Tibbits
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Skylar Tibbits is a trained Architect, Designer and Computer Scientist whose research currently focuses on developing self-assembly technologies for large-scale structures in our physical environment.
Skylar 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. See his TED Talk here.
Here's an interesting article about the self-assembly of mesoscopic and macroscopic components.

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Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Director Andy London
  • Artist Cindy Tan
  • Animator Santiago Peralta
  • Educator Skylar Tibbits
  • Narrator Skylar Tibbits

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