The materiome

Abstract

The goal of materiomics is the complete understanding of the materiome—a holistic characterization of a complex material system. The balance of form and function throughout Nature is well recognized, but the materiome must enhance a basic characterization of complex biological phenomena, to enable the prediction and design of new technologies. Analogous to genomics and other “-omic” fields, there is an obvious difference in scope between a gene or genetic sequence, and the human genome. Here, we establish the scope of the materiome beyond the assembly of material components (e.g., architecture or structure), the fundamental difference between application and function, the concept of material behavior scaling, as well as the challenges (and benefits) imposed by material hierarchies and complexity. Material and structure are no longer distinct, and the assembly of building blocks ranges across all scales from the nano to the macro level.