Catalytic self-folding of 2D structures through cascading magnet reactions

While thousands of proteins involved in development of the human body are capable of self-assembling in a distributed manner from merely 20 types of amino acid, macroscopic products that can be assembled spontaneously from `alive' components remains an aspiration in engineering. To attain such a mechanism, a major challenge lies in understanding which attributes from the bio-molecular realm must be leveraged at the macro-scale. Inspired by protein folding, we present a centimetre-size 1D tile chain whose self-folding processes are directed by structure-embedded magnetic interactions, which can theoretically self-assemble into convex 2D structures of any size or shape without the aid of a global `controller'. Each tile holds two magnets contained in paths designed to control their interactions. Once initiated by a magnetic unit (termed Catalyst), the chain self-reconfigures by consuming magnetic potential energy stored between magnet pairs, until the final 2D structure is reached at an e...