Abstract of the talk// The exquisite diversity and functionality of biological materials is truly remarkable, especially since they are composed of just a few common chemical elements. While engineered materials often require specific — and sometimes unsustainable — chemical compositions to fulfill their functions, nature achieves unparalleled functionality through optimized architectures that span multiple length scales. Water, with its ubiquity and unique structural dynamics, plays a pivotal role in shaping the properties and functionality of natural materials at the nanoscale by acting as a “working fluid” integrated into structural components.

In the presentation, Patrick will introduce a new class of sustainable, interactive materials whose functionality arises from the interplay between hierarchical structures of hard matter and water. He will demonstrate how these “Blue Materials” can mimic natural processes such as water-driven mechanical actuation, capillary-driven water transport, and humidity-responsive coloration and light scattering. He will also discuss their potential applications in areas such as electrical energy storage and conversion, thereby extending the functionalities observed in nature into engineered materials.

In the context of CASUS’s mission — advancing data-intensive systems research and predictive modelling of complex phenomena — the DESY and TUHH researcher will outline how his team aims to image and model water in Blue Materials from the molecular to the device scale. By exploiting the brilliant X-ray sources available in Hamburg and combining the resulting data with artificial-intelligence-enabled modelling frameworks, they seek to construct predictive, multi-scale digital representations of these materials. Through this systems-oriented, data-driven approach, they aim not only to understand and emulate nature but to transcend it — moving from nature-inspired materials toward applications beyond nature.