Scientists need to work outside their own areas of expertise to make new technologies that are pertinent to the 21st century and to collaborate, both with other scientific disciplines and the arts and humanities. ~Rachel Armstrong

Rachel Armstrong’s presentation is interesting because it suggests a creative solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem, how to repair architecture that is literally losing its ground. More science than fiction, it also contains the romance of a smart solution.

• Rachel Armstrong begins her presentation at TED on a strong note, by saying that “All buildings today have something in common. They are made using Victorian technologies.” She immediately sets the stage by saying how the one way transfer of energy from our environment into inert structures is not sustainable, and then proceeds to outline a cutting edge solution in progress.
• She speaks with assurance, stays focused on the process, and uses slides just enough to illustrate her ideas and engage our emotions through the problem.
• Although she doesn’t particularly interact with the audience using pauses or humor, her style works because she keeps up the pace, and demonstrates passion for her subject.
• She explains what must be a highly technical subject using captivating metaphors. Protocells contain no DNA, but behave like living matter. Metabolic materials don’t exist, so we we had to create them, and they are vigorously architectural. Terrestrial chemistry works everywhere.
• Her theme of architecture that repairs itself is made immediately relevant through her work in progress, experimenting to create a crystal limestone reef to shore up and reclaim the sagging city of Venice. She engages our imagination by saying that, although it might take time,  eventually the result may be indistinguishable from the work of nature itself.
• She engages the audience locally by referring to the lovely fossilized shells in the limestone brickwork in Oxford, where the TED conference is being held. She engages the audience globally by suggesting that the use of ubiquitous metabolic materials can work in countries anywhere in the world.
• Her message connects architecture metaphorically to the structure of our societies, comparing the top down insulated industrial Victorian approach to the more organic type of architecture of the future, in which buildings could be in constant communication with their environment.
• She doesn’t just talk about technology. She talks about how technology affects people.
• Impressive enough as a TED speaker, Rachel Armstrong has a fascinating bio, as a medical doctor, multi-media producer, science fiction author, and arts collaborator.