ERC Consolidator Grant · 2022
VULCAN: matter, powered from within
Vulcan, the Roman god of blacksmithing, was revered in Europe since the Iron Age (1200-500 BC) for a powerful skill: controlling the macroscopic properties of metals (strength, ductility, toughness). To this day, thermal treatments such as annealing - cycles of high temperatures, alternated with slow cooling - remain an essential tool of material science. However, Vulcan’s traditional powers forge monolithic, static, and passive materials, and are laughably blunt instruments when compared to living materials, which dynamically reconfigure, repair, and rebuild themselves. Living systems provide proof-of-concepts for what can be achieved: assembling functional materials from elementary blocks…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.