Recent evolutions in the world of materials: Are materials intelligent?

The imitation of living systems is among the most permanent dreams of humanity and macroscopic biomimetism was at the origin of some marvellous automatons in the past, as well as of the sophisticated robots of today. In the same way, but at a more microscopic level, the concept of "smart" or "intelligent" materials appeared at the end of the last century in a really biomimetic frame in which a material would possess, like a living system, "nerves" simulated by a network of sensors, "muscles" or active parts and a "brain" in order to coordinate the whole. This ambitious concept, which establishes a new area in materials science, leads naturally to multifunctionality and to the most difficult of challenges: the self-healing behaviour! Composite materials seem well suited for such an approach.