Credit: photo/©: private Artificially created smart, intelligent materials with properties characteristic of life - this is the aim of Professor Andreas Walther's research at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (JGU), for which the chemist is now receiving EUR 2 million in EU funding. Walther plans to produce mechanical materials equipped with the ability to adapt, learn, and interact. The long-term goal is to generate a form of coevolution between synthetic materials and living cells, which would blur the boundaries between animate and inanimate matter. The European Research Council (ERC) h...