You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity

every day. I'm your host, Elise Hew. Over the thousands of years of human existence, we've come

to master the art of making things, but we haven't gotten quite so good at taking care of the things we make.

So how do we do that?

Taking inspiration from nature's ability to heal and adapt,

Materials scientist Mark Miodovnik envisions a future of animate

materials that can self-repair, self-recycle, and even self-grow.

It's a possibility that could revolutionize our infrastructure and reduce waste.

If you come and visit me in London, you'll see streetscapes a bit like this.

Hey, it's Elise here, and I want to quickly describe the image that just came up on the screen behind Mark.

It's a shot of a street in London. You see the iconic red telephone box with the glass windows,

concrete sidewalk, a road on one side and businesses on the other, one with a blue facade.

There are a few people walking by in coats.

And if you see the world through my eyes, you'd see this.

Mark has changed the slide, and we see the same picture,

but this time it's got lots of annotations and markings on it.

He has circled the various materials in the image,

glass, concrete, asphalt, and he's named them.

We see words like steel, rubber, tarmac, wood, PVC, and more.

Don't pity me, okay?

I love this stuff.

We just make so many amazing materials as humans.

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